[Other FULL] Fire Emblem: Re-Awakening [IC][T]

Lutaro watched as Cloff struggled to hold himself up in the fight. He was about to fly over and protect him, but he was quickly surrounded by three bandits. This worried him, because while being a manakete did make him far more powerful than his ultra-vulnerable human form did, he was far from invincible.

But he was FAR from helpless. He gave a hostile turn toward one of them, and gave his wings a solid push, ramming heavily into it. He used the force to ram his head into a tree, consequently crushing the figure into it as well. Lutaro mentally cringed as he heard the sound of snapping bones.

The other two figures immediately charged after him as well, but Lutaro responded quickly, unleashing a strong blizzard out of his mouth, knocking them to the ground, until they eventually froze to death. Two deaths with one breath.

Quickly, he flew over to the downed taguel. He could see that the taguel was focused on protecting the girl... Tarin. It would likely make things easier, he thought, to fight with both of them.

He flew over to them, standing closer to Cloff, ramming into an oncoming bandit in the process.

Prince Nokam​

As Nokam tended to his wound, he watched as his Shepherds launched into action. They were reasonably competent, though Cloff did get neutralized fairly quickly. Shame. Lutaro managed to assist him until whatever poison the bandits had on their weapons had dissipated. Then he, Cloff, and Tarin formed up back to back to repel their foes better.

Standing after healing his wound, he narrowly dodged another arrow fired his way. They have too many archers for us to respond well, Nokam thought. We need some way to remove the archers. Running over to where Cloff and the others stood, he said, "We need to remove the archers. If we don't they'll turn us into pin cushions. Tarin," He said, looking toward the thief. "I need you to sneak around and dismantle them if you can. I'll help distract them with these guys while you do it."

Not waiting for a response, he charged toward the group of bandits rallying at the tree line. Sidestepping the lead man's initial attack, which was awkwardly aimed, he cut two of them down with a horizontal slash. He yelled back. "Come on! Let's go!"

Cloff felt a dull throb in his head. The drug seemed to be wearing off...perhaps being in Beast Form managed to make it go away quicker? Whatever the case, Cloff still felt a little groggy, but now had a complete feel of his body. As he waited for the cobwebs in his brain to leave, he looked up and saw Nokam cut down two bandits.
He might need help...
Cloff bounded over towards him, clumsily, and with a noble roar, pounced on one of the bandits. He extended a claw and prepared to slit the bandits throat...before blinking. He noticed that he had missed again and had instead tackled Nokam.

"Sorry...it was the Impulse!" Cloff lied, not wanting to look foolish. He was sure that Nokam knew about the Impulse...after Cloff had officially joined the Shepherds, he had done a few foolish things involving Nokam before this encounter. Examples included hiding Nokam's weapons, walking into a shower while Nokam was taking one(Cloff had swiftly closed his eyes, and very awkwardly found his way out), and giving the man a haircut while he slept. It was a small trim, barely noticeable, but one side of his hair was longer than the other. Of course, these all involved Nokam and nobody else. Luckily, there had been nobody around to see. The taguel would've died of humiliation if Tarin saw the shower incident. The point was, Cloff eventually had to confess. He didn't quite know how Nokam had taken it, he confessed it speedily and rapidly, before running off to use a toilet of some sort.

As Cloff got off of Nokam, he saw that the number of bandits had increased. Cloff leapt again---and this time hit a bandit. He threw his captive into a group of others, before transforming back into a human form. Cloff entered hand-to-hand combat with one of the bandits, with one goal in mind. With one motion, he shifted his weight and slammed his body into the attacker. Both of them went towards the ground. A dagger that the bandit had been holding fell out of his hand. Cloff picked it up and slashed at his throat. The taguel brought the bloodied blade close to his eye, and saw the blood was mixed with something else. The poison. Cloff turned the body over and found a few darts, like the one that had hit him. The taguel grabbed them, and stored them, before heading back into beast form.

"I've got a sample of the drug! It can help us later!" Cloff reported to his allies, before diving back into battle.

The boy responded to her with a series of confused "Uhh's..." which unfortunately wasn't the answer she was looking for. "Maybe he's someone's kid?" Tarin thought, barely dodging an arrow that was fired towards both of them. Instead of giving her a proper answer, the kid hopped off his horse and ran over to everyone's favourite Taguel. He pulled out a stone eerily similar to Cloff's Beaststone and transformed. Long gone was the confused, powerless child that rode through the forest. A large dragon flew in place, lifting Cloff into its arms.

Without hesitation, the dragon fired waves of ice at an assassin, turning him into a lifeless Ice sculpture. Tarin was both dumbfounded and impressed; the 'kid' was able to make a fantastic sculpture out of an assailant in a matter of seconds. She wanted to go examine his powers up close, but was interrupted by a small group of bowmen, who proceeded to fire all around her. Tarin smirked, speeding towards the assassins before they got the chance to fire a second shot.

She leapt, pulling out her dagger and crashing into the closest enemy's back. Immediately, Tarin ferociously plunged the knife into the head of the downed attacker. She quickly ripped it out, before moving onto her next target. After incapacitating 5 more enemies, she heard an idiot call out to her. "Hang on, Tarin!" Cloff shouted, rushing towards her. He leapt in front of her, narrowly blocking an arrow from hitting her. The taguel started moving around sporadically, before coming to a complete stop.

The assassin prepared his next shot with haste, pulling back the bowstring before she could react. He seemed to laugh to himself, thinking her to be easy prey. Tarin reached for a throwing knife in an attempt to retaliate, but was shocked when she saw the man fly past her. The dragon, which she presumed was the cause of the man's death, landed next to Cloff. She felt tiny next to the kid and Cloff, but she readied herself for battle anyway.

However, before she could meet the next wave, Nokam ran over to them with an injured arm. "We need to remove the archers. If we don't they'll turn us into pin cushions. Tarin," He said, looking toward the thief. "I need you to sneak around and dismantle them if you can. I'll help distract them with these guys while you do it." Before she could even speak, Nokam charged into battle with the others following suit. Tarin sighed, before grabbing onto the nearest branch and swinging herself onto it.

She looked around briefly, attempting to spot any sign of life in the tree tops. She found a lone, assassin jumping from branch to branch towards him. When Tarin finally got to him, she stabbed through the cloak on the assassin's back. However, instead of the bloody squelch that normally comes out of her stabbing, the sound of wood being chopped emerged from 'his' back. "Uh-oh…" Tarin muttered, hearing a bowstring be stretched back. The cloak was a decoy and the real assassin was directly above her. She attempted to pull her dagger out of the wood, but it was too late. An arrow was fired, striking Tarin in her lower back. Her arm stretched upwards, grabbing onto her assailant's foot and throwing him onto the ground.

The poison had yet to take its effect on her, but Tarin knew it would only be a matter of time. She attempted to pull the arrow out, but got distracted when she saw a large ring of enemies form around her.

Lutaro immediately noticed as Tarin had been stricken with a poison arrow and had fallen. He quickly positioned himself over to her, charging into one of the enemies with a solid ram. No way was he going to let a teammate get hurt.

Unfortunately, this put a lot more attention on him. A lot of the enemies, who had never seen a dragon in combat, were rather afraid of Lutaro but clearly were willing to kill him. He resumed charging through them and breathing ice, but not without getting a barrage of arrows piercing into his scales. He managed, at the very least, to leave Tarin safe from the ring... hopefully. But as he was able to calm himself, it hit him: He was hurt. Badly. His scales held back any fatal fire but he had taken quite a bit of damage. He noticed he was running out of energy, and even that some of the arrows had made it through a gap in scales. Though he was not invincible to it, he was at least more resistant to the poison in the arrows, as he fell down to four legs and had his head scouting the area around him, standing in front of the wounded Tarin.

All attention was on the dragon. Bandits paused to stare at the majestic creature. Cloff didn't let this opportunity go to waste. He swiftly knocked down a group of bandits that were caught off-guard, and threw them away. More arrows were shot at him, poison-coated without a doubt, but they were lazily shot. The bandits were still a bit shaky. It took five seconds for their condition to subside, as now another group focused on Cloff...but more intently this time. The taguel growled ferociously as they formed a circle around him.

Human form. it said, out of nowhere. Cloff swiftly transformed into a human, realizing that he was a much smaller target now. He reached for the darts of his own...and flung them at a nearby bandit. In a fluid motion, he ducked under a few arrows fired and leapt for the drugged bandit, successfully tackling him. The taguel took a dagger that was pocketed at about the time that the manakete had transformed to protect Tarin. Blood spurted from his victims neck, as Cloff leapt off the carcass, storing away his dagger.

"Who's next?" the taguel asked, playfully, at the remainder of the group. In response, he was hit by something blunt on the back of the head. The taguel collapsed, coughing a little from the shock. Cloff rolled onto his back to view the assailant and saw someone who looked tougher than the rest of the group.

"You must...be the leader..." Cloff remarked, stating what seemed to be the obvious.
"Not quite. I'm the tactician, and I couldn't stay away from the scent of fresh prey." the attacker grinned. He brought a large metal club-like object towards Cloff's head, which would've normally shattered his skull. To any normal person, this blow would've killed them. But Cloff had reached for his beast stone, and was a taguel in the mere seconds it took the club to hit him. And taguels have thicker bones. Cloff let out a roar, before feeling tons of arrows implant themself into his fur. Of course, the group was still there. Cloff leapt forward, but the tactician nimbly dodged, before smacking the beast aside with his club again.

Cloff, he's smarter than you. He's predicting your every move right now. Do something nobody else would do. the Impulse said. Cloff thought a moment--Don't think.
Without thinking, Cloff went back into human form and threw his Beast Stone towards the trees, where it left from sight.

Cloff. You're an idiot. the Impulse mocked. But the tactician seemed confused by this move, as he was staring in the direction that the Beast Stone had been thrown. Cloff seized the moment and fled, weaving between bandits, away from the trees. The highwaymen had planned their ambush there, so that's where the highest concentration of them would be. The taguel felt a little saddened by the loss of his Beast Stone, but happy due to keeping his life. A man seemed to cut off his path--there was no way around him. So Cloff ran into the bandit, and in a moment, the two were on the ground.

"Oh...hey, Nokam! Got a spare Beast Stone?" Cloff asked, sheepishly, noticing that he had accidentally tackled the prince again. The two men got to their feet and Cloff reached for his dagger.

Prince Nokam

Nokam was taking a breather when Cloff, in his human form, smashed into him. "Oh...hey, Nokam! Got a spare Beast Stone?" Cloff asked. He seemed to be pretty battered, covered in bruises and dirt.

"What? A Beast Stone?" Nokam questioned. "No, of course not. I don't even know if we have a Beast Stone in the convoy, they're fairly rare. Tarin may have one though, you could ask her. Speaking of which, where is she? And why do you need a Beast Stone anyway? Don't you already have one?" Nokam wasn't all that sure of the habits of Taguels, but he was fairly certain they never left their Beast Stones out of their sight.

(...Ah!)

Lutaro quickly reacted as Shinji mistook him for a threat. You'd think he'd be used to this by now.

Of course, flying away from Shinji and avoiding him was an option, but that wouldn't exactly clear anything up.

Quickly letting his guard down in a desperate attempt to prevent friendly fire, he reverted from his dragon form, quickly returning to his 10-year-old-looking human form, not even considering his surroundings. Once fully reverting to human form, he rapidly shook his hands toward Shinji, as he exclaimed, "No! No, wait! I'm Lutaro! A Shepherd! I'm on your side! I'm protecting her! Please don't hurt me!!!"

Once again, he was SEVERELY exposed right now.

Nokam answered with a barrage of questions, but all Cloff heard was, "No, I don't have a Beast Stone. Have fun being dead in a few minutes!"

"Do you want me to die?!" Cloff screeched, eyes still locked with a bandit. The question was for Nokam, but the taguel knew that the prince probably didn't know that. The bandit leapt for him and Cloff swung blindly with his dagger. He had missed every time he swung, and noticed that he had been carried forward by the momentum. He turned around, at the bandit now behind him. With a grunt, the bandit swung his axe, but Cloff managed to avoid it.

"I'm...um...a taguel. Stay away unless you wish to face my beast form!" Cloff bluffed. He avoided the axe again a moment later.
Gee, I sure wish you had pocketed something earlier that could help.
Cloff pulled out one more poison-covered dart, relieved that he still had some. The taguel thrust the dart towards his opponent, and missed again.

"Sorry, Nokam!" Cloff called out. The bandit turned around, facing the prince.

"It's Nokam! Kill him!" the bandit yelled, obviously shocked to see the prince. He didn't get a chance. As he spoke, Cloff had jabbed his dagger into the back of his neck. The man fell, dead. Cloff swiftly rushed to the side of the prince. A taguel without a beast stone and a prince infected with a drug...Cloff pondered if he had ever faced odds worse than this. The taguel wondered how Tarin was doing.

Lutaro was startled by the man's forcing him behind, but saw he was keeping him out of harm's way. Seeing all the decapitation and mutilation being done by Shinji and his Badaxe was rather cringe-inducing to our weak-willed manakete character, but at the very least, he was relieved he was safe.

Returned to realization he was in the fray, he nodded at the words of Shinji, grasping his dragonstone in his hand, resuming his usual tradition of blanket-throwing and shape-shifting and such. He was once again a dragon.

Quickly reacting to the bandits attempting to end their lives, Lutaro gave a strong push of the wings, flinging himself into many of the bandits that attempted to gang up on him. At the very least, it would allow him to better resist.

He managed to pick out some bandits that were still incoming. Quickly reacting, he pulled in a deep huff of air, and released a freezing gale that blew down and froze all the bandits in that place. Even if they didn't die... oh, no, they all died.

Lutaro looked back at the still handicapped Tarin. Right now, keeping her safe was important... poison is poison, after all.

Prince Nokam

Cloff's expression blanched at Nokam's revelation. Cloff screamed. "Do you want me to die?!" he shouted, turning to engage a rogue who had entered the fray. Even without a Beast Stone, Cloff did a fairly decent job of fighting, although he did inadvertently reveal Nokam's identity. Not that Nokam was hiding or anything, but its generally better that royalty remained unknown in a brawl. For logistic purposes.

Anyway, Nokam could feel the poison wearing him down. He had a strong constitution, and the poison didn't seem to be lethal, but it was still slowing him down. He lifted his blade, walking over beside Cloff. "We need to rejoin the others," he said. "We're too weak on our own." Then he grinned, trying to raise Cloff's spirits. "But hey, look on the bright side. There can't be many more of them left!" He started walking toward the noises that seemed to be coming from a conflict out of sight.

Nokam was unaffected by the poison. At least, that's what it seemed like to Cloff. The only noticeable change in the Prince was that his reaction time was a little bit slower...the taguel recalled feeling dizzy and terrible. What was it in Nokam's blood that made him highly resistant to this drug? And the effect of other poisons be weakened as well? The bandits that had once surrounded the group were thinning out; there truly wasn't much left. Nokam had headed off towards an unknown conflict.

"Not good enough...I need to find Tarin. And my beast stone." the taguel muttered, noticing a large clump of bandits in a different direction. He sprinted towards them, eager to see what they were clustered around. With his dagger, the taguel cut down a few of them, before catching a glimpse of large, leathery wings. The manakete. Cloff dove in to assist him, before he felt a horrendous chill overtake him, from a freezing gale. The taguel was disoriented, stumbling around a bit. He had only been hit by the fringes of the blast; the weakest part. And yet, he was cold and had lost feeling in much of his body. Was this the power of a manakete? As he shook the cobwebs off, he noticed that he had inadvertently walked to an unknown spot on the battlefield. The bandits were still there, but weren't as aggressive...they were also aware that there numbers were dropping dangerously. Cloff looked towards one way; the trees. That's where he had seen the manakete...there were probably other Shepherds with him. Cloff looked the other way and saw a smaller force of bandits...the Prince was that way.

Cloff wanted to protect Tarin and get his beaststone...that way was towards the trees. He was about to head off, before a small blur appeared in his peripherals. The taguel spun around and saw the tactician...heading towards the Prince.

"Get rid of the Prince! Let us make our mark on this kingdom!" the tactician commanded. Cloff knew the manakete could protect Tarin if worst came to worst...so he bounded off in the general direction of the Prince. He caught a glimpse of Nokam, surrounded by the thugs.
This is your fault...if you hadn't revealed that he was the Prince, you wouldn't be in this mess and could be helping Tarin!
Cloff leapt to help the prince, but found himself being grabbed by the neck before being thrust towards the ground.

"We meet again, taguel. You're a skilled fighter...how about a deal? Kill the prince and you'll get your Beaststone back." the tactician grinned, maniacally. Cloff's first instinct was to shout no, before he thought about it. His clan had taught him that the man-folk were bad...his life had nearly been ended at least three times since joining the Shepherds. And...Nokam was a powerful member of the manfolk. Killing him meant cutting off all his connection to the manfolk...but possibly getting back into the clan. The choice was easy. Tarin was part of the Shepherds, so Cloff would stay.

"Of course I'll kill that prince! He trusts me!" Cloff said, not realizing where the words had come from. He wanted to protect the prince, but the impulse thought otherwise. He headed off and cut down a few bandits, getting close to Nokam. The impulse was in control of his body now...
No...please... Cloff thought, but the Impulse wasn't listening. It wanted blood; the Prince's blood. With a crazy gleam in his eye, Cloff observed as more bandits approached. The Prince was skilled and would see the dagger coming...Cloff had to find the right moment. That would be in a fight, where the Prince's focus would be on the bandits and not on him.

"Let's take them out!" Cloff hissed, eagerly. The bandits rushed forwards, as the taguel tried to regain control of his body.

Tarin was doomed. Her primary weapon was lodged into a log and she had already wasted a throwing knife earlier. To top it all off, she was injured, poisoned and surrounded by a horde of enemies, each one poised to fire at any moment. But why didn't they kill her already? Were they waiting for something? It was strange; they stared at her as if they were evaluating her. This was her only chance. If she waited any longer, she'd be killed or taken hostage. Tarin stared at the assassin in front of her while inconspicuously reaching for her dagger. The assassin sighed before giving a nod to an archer on his right.

Arrows were immediately sent into her left leg, causing Tarin to stumble backwards. Unfortunately, the tree branch she was on wasn't very thick, so her stumble quickly became a fall. Her back smashed harshly onto the ground, sending a wave of pain all throughout her body. Tarin immediately shut her eyes and held her breath in an attempt to make them think that the fall killed her. She could hear them land all around her, but there was something else too. Small gusts of wind brushed past Tarin's hair as the sound of flapping quickly got louder.

Tarin briefly opened her eyes to see a dragon fly directly above her, which then smashed into a couple of bandits. Pained moans drifted through the air as the dragon caught more enemies in his ram. A gust of cold wind went over her head and froze a bandit who was near her. However, the Manakete was unable to hit everything. A few archers managed to avoid its attacks, instead firing arrow after arrow at the monster. She had to help it, even if it were possible that the dragon wanted to eat her or something.

But how? Tarin only had a single throwing knife, it'd be impossible to kill them with only that. However, Tarin realised that she was covered in 'weapons,' the only problem was that she'd have to pull them out. She carefully moved her hand onto the arrow that was lodged into her left leg and... "ARRRGH!" Tarin screamed, biting onto her lip as the arrow ripped out of her leg. She quickly did the same to another arrow stuck on her right arm, before standing up. Tarin started to feel a little woozy, but she managed to force her body over to the archers.

They had yet to notice her, as they were focused on taking out the dragon. She grasped one of her arrows tightly, before shoving it directly into an archer's neck. He fell, landing lifeless beneath her feet. Neither of the remaining archers noticed (or cared) that their comrade had just died, still focused on firing arrows at the manakete. Tarin limped behind the second archer, sweeping her right leg underneath them. The archer fell to the ground and before being able to react, Tarin drove an arrow straight through his throat.

"Two down, one to go." She thought, positioning herself behind the last archer. Tarin quickly pulled her last throwing knife out of its holster, sticking a thumb out to more easily line up her shot. However, just as she was about to launch the knife, a sharp pain entered her left leg. Her leg started to throb intensely, forcing her to fall back onto the ground. It felt like there was a fire burning inside her leg, causing her to squeal in agony.

Unfortunately, her squeal finally alerted the Assassin to her presence. She turned around, glaring at Tarin before smirking. The archer could tell that Tarin was injured and would be an easy kill. "Think of this as a mercy killing." She sneered, pulling her bowstring back firmly. "Yeah... You should." Tarin immediately flung her knife at the archer, striking her in the chest. The archer wavered, falling to the ground. Tarin smiled briefly, but the pain in her leg started to intensify.

She held her hand over the wound as the dragon landed in front of her. "Thanks, I guess..." Tarin hesitantly said, attempting to pick herself off of the ground. However, someone had jumped between the dragon and herself, looking down at her with a heroic smile. "Don't worry, m'lady. I'll protect you." Protection from what? They weren't under attack right now and the Manakete was already doing a fine job at protecting her anyway. He turned around, facing the manakete head on. "Shinji Chozu. Dragon Slayer extraordinaire. Best fighter in the Shepherds."

"Why would a shepherd, kill a shepherd whose protecting a shepherd?" Tarin muttered, watching as the 'dragon slayer' advanced on him. However, the Manakete quickly turned into a young boy, immediately waving his hands around like mad. "No! No, wait! I'm Lutaro! A Shepherd! I'm on your side! I'm protecting her! Please don't hurt me!!!" Lutaro rapidly said, causing Shinji to lower his weapon. Out of nowhere, two arrows struck Shinji's shield, prompting him to throw it in the direction the arrows were fired from.

The two eventually started fighting the bandits, but Tarin completely ignored everything happening around her. Instead she was focused on a very hairy man talking to one of the bandits. "Let's take them out!" A familiar voice shouted, filling the Assassin's with a lust for blood. Her eyes widened when she discovered who was the one speaking. Cloff. "So the idiot's actually a traitor..." Tarin said, thinking about what she should do next.

On one hand, if she let Cloff and his assassin followers kill Nokam, she would be free of this stupid army and able to go back to her old life. On the other, this could be her only chance to justifiably get revenge on the idiot (and possibly earn a pay raise). She knew that she didn't have much time to decide, she had to react now. A gust of wind hit a nearby tree, knocking the log out of the tree. "I'm going to regret this..." Tarin thought, forcing her body to stand. She painfully walked to the log, picking it up by her dagger's hilt.

The poison tried its best to make her get back onto the ground, but Tarin wasn't going to let it win. She forced her legs to start running, trying to get to Nokam before he could be swarmed by the bandits and Cloff. When she could finally see Nokam, Tarin realised how bad an idea this was. They would be greatly outnumbered and she wasn't exactly in the best shape right now. But, it was too late to turn back, too late to change her mind. "NOKAM," She shouted, hopefully gaining his attention.

Do you see this Cloff? Nokam's calling for assistance and now must carry a wounded soldier with him. The others are busy, probably fighting off more bandits. But our small group is enough. I have a strategy, and by the end of this, your precious friends will be dead! the Impulse taunted him.

"Shepherds to me!" Cloff heard, as Nokam finished. The taguel was a Shepherd...

"I'm coming...Nokam..." the taguel uttered. Suddenly, he was forced back into a dark prison. His body wanted blood; Nokam's blood. It was commanding the bandits and moving with precision and grace. Nokam was cutting them down, but even Cloff could see the trap that Nokam was falling into. The bandits were arranged in a formation that would cause Nokam's momentum to carry him forwards. The body was spinning around the fray, weaving in and out of the battles to throw him off balance. The formation was constantly shifting with a variable, moving with the speed that was only gifted to taguels. The point was, Nokam's foot stumbled. Which is what the body was waiting for. It dove forth and prepared to implant the dagger into the back of the man's neck.

"NOKAM! Stop cutting down the bandits! Leave them to Tarin, in her weakened..." Cloff, briefly regaining control, was interuptted by a sudden shot of pain. The taguel fell to his knees, before continuing..
"ARGH!...Her weakened...ngh...state...should be able to...AGH..take them. Focus your attention to me! Slay me...and you might get out of this alive!" Cloff shouted, writhing in pain.
How heroic...telling him the key to avert my tactics. Sacrificing yourself. Cloff, don't you see? It's hopeless. I'll come up with another tactic. We both know I'm smarter than you.

The taguel lost his body again, and it got up and took a swing at Nokam. The punch hit the Prince square in the jaw, causing him to stumble back. Cloff was out of energy. It took all his strength to deliver his message...the taguel could no longer fight. He could only sit back, watch, and pray that Nokam and Tarin survived this mess.

Lutaro was taking on bandits, as was the point of this entire endeavour, when he looked and saw Cloff was... working against Nokam? But... why? Was he a traitor?

"ARGH!...Her weakened...ngh...state...should be able to...AGH..take them. Focus your attention to me! Slay me...and you might get out of this alive!", he heard Cloff say.

... Yeah, that puts that theory out of the way. A selfless traitor? Not even possible. But something WAS wrong with him.

Quickly, the weakened dragon flew toward Cloff, at a good speed as ever, and flew straight into Cloff. It was not anything fatal, or even capable of doing significant damage, but it was enough to push Cloff down. Quickly, Lutaro's idealistic personality kicked in, as a ridiculously stupid idea came to him. Even he knew it was bad, and would probably get him killed. But if he was right... if Cloff wasn't doing this in his own volition... then why? He wanted to know, and he couldn't ask as a dragon.

He fell to the ground, and quickly reverted to his child-like human form. He grabbed the blanket, and quickly called to Cloff. "Wh-What do you think you're doing?! You're on- GAH..."
Suddenly, a terrible realization blasted Lutaro... he was not only vulnerable... he was weak. The blows that had been taken against him were only counter-acted by the adrenaline that came from protecting the Shepherds, and now that it was gone... it would be miraculous if he could transform back. He quickly fell to his knee, as various wounds of his dragon form brought him down in a blast of agony.

"You're... You're on our side... Why... Why would you fight Lord Ylisse... Aggghh..."
He grasped his stomach as he was reduced to a crumble as he tried to talk to him. One thing was for sure: Directing his attention from fighting was a terrible decision.

The boy was weak. Now was a perfec time to make an impact; to prove that he meant business. The taguel grabbed the boy and held him up.
"Now, now, little dragon...you're right. He's on your side. Sadly, I'm not." Cloff smiled, innocently, before throwing the boy onto the ground. Dust came from the body.

"This one's mine!" the taguel shouted as a bandit with an axe approached. The bandit frowned, before spotting Nokam and running furiously towards the Prince. Cloff pulled his dagger out, and jammed it into the boys soft flesh. The wound was deep, and in the chest. Cloff knew the area would cause a slow and painful death.

"I can leave you to die here, or I can be merciful and just end you right now. You see, he has suffered enough watching me do this in his name. Just know this isn't mercy for you...it's for him." the taguel sighed, removing the dagger(blood spurted from the penetration), and bringing it to the boys neck.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

"It's over, he's dead. The bandits will handle the Prince." the taguel said to the tactician.
"You have proved your loyalty to us. Take your precious stone." the tactician replied, throwing Cloff the stone.
"I might need a vulneary. That blow that the manakete dealt did some serious damage." Cloff added. He recieved a vulneary, before approaching the boys motionless body. He was still breathing. The taguel had taken his body back at the last second, preventing the boys throat from being slit. He applied the vulneary to the stab wound...the tactician wouldn't focus on him. Cloff knew strategically, the tactician would be focusing on Nokam and the best way to take him out; Cloff and the boy were a few yards away from the action.

"I'm sorry, but I'll make this up to you." Cloff whispered, before laying the boy down. He looked so helpless...

"Listen, I'm going to create a distraction. Think you can transform and off the tactician? The bandits aren't smart, and without someone telling them what to do, it'll be easy to pick them off." Cloff said, realizing that the tactician thought teh boy was dead. The taguel carried the boy away, without the tactician notcing. He was still intent on commanding his bandits to kill Nokam. The taguel set the boy down a fair distance away.

"Alright, I'm going to cause that diversion now. You're far enough to transform without being noticed. You'll have to do this quickly--here." Cloff said. The boy was clearly strong enough to do the job; the vulnerary had put him in quite better shape than he was in before. The taguel gave him a reassuring smile before running off and transforming.

"NOKAM! PREPARE TO DIE!" the taguel shouted. His aim was to make a scene, make it so dramatic that the tactician wouldn't be able to turn away. Cloff only hoped Nokam wouldn't kill him before the plan with the manakete was complete.

Lutaro had hoped Cloff would listen to reason, but the poor child was quickly grabbed. Lutaro gasped.

"Now, now, little dragon... you're right. He's on your side. However, I'm not."

Lutaro let out a hard gasp as he was thrown to the ground, this doing horrors against his weakened state. But that was nothing compared to seeing Cloff pull out a dagger. Before h could even react, the wound shot straight into his chest. He let out a final cry, tears filling his eyes, before his movements calmed down. Blood spurted out of his wound at slower speeds than it had when he had initially been stabbed; the boy was dying. He quickly lost consciousness.

He awoke seeing Cloff carrying him... he had half a mind to struggle, but he wasn't hurt as badly. Sure, a vulernary can only heal so much... he was still weakened and hacking and bleeding... but at the very least, he was in a position to transform again. Had Cloff saved him?

"I'm sorry, but I'll make this up to you."

... so his request was for Lutaro to off the tactician while Cloff charged for the prince. Anyone else would have grown skeptical, but Lutaro accepted that he was telling the truth.

He watched as Cloff charged toward Nokam. Once he believed the Tactician was sufficiently distracted, he mustered the strength to grab his dragonstone, turning into his dragon form.

At full speed, he unleashed a blizzard, at the same time as ramming right into the tactician, slamming them right into a tree, which could easily kill a man... but the frozen temperature surrounding him simply made the impact harder on the tactician. He was undoubtedly dead.

Lutaro then turned toward Cloff. If he didn't stop going to kill the Prince...