Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Chapter 4
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Disclaimer: I do not own any franchises mentioned in this story. This is fan-based work of fiction.
Beta: Gerald_of_Revea
-Soma-
I’ve never seen a man die before.
I still haven’t. The professor was still alive, gasping and bleeding, a scream escaping him as he tried and failed to pull the arrow out of his socket.
The sight alone made me want to vomit.
“You need to get out of here!” Claude shouted, and everything snapped back into place.
“Right!” I called out, reaching for the closest thing with a handle.
I was cursing to myself that I had left my sword with my sleeping gear, not thinking I would need it so early in the day.
One of the bandits grinned down at me, his sword raised, only to be hit by my wild swing.
A dull thunking sound reverberated in the clearing; the man spun in place, hitting the table, before he finally fell to the ground.
‘Did I just knock him out?’ I wondered, staring at the downed man before another bandit charged at me from the left side, his axe raised.
“Shit!” I shouted, grabbing the soup ladle that was still in the pot. I swung widely, the man leaning back, my swing missing completely. However, something neither of us accounted for was the soup.
While my swing missed, the soup within the ladle did not, the bandit screaming as it got into his eyes.
That’s when Casper rushed in, letting out a cry before swinging at the man with his axe.
“You need to get out of here!” Casper shouted to me, killing the two men. “Leave these guys to us, we can deal with them!”
I nodded back to him, turning tail and running into the forest.
-Shez-
She didn’t think she’d go out like this. She knew death was a part of life, except she had long expected that she would die on the battlefield.
The closest she ever came to death was fighting her. The Ashen Demon. She knew she was skilled. One of the best mercenaries out there. But against the Ashen Demon? She felt as if she was being toyed with.
She would have lost her life that day if not for Arval. But now? She regretted relying on him as much as she did.
Starvation. She’s going to die because she couldn’t find any food. And the last bit of water she had must have been at least two days ago.
‘The stab wound isn’t helping either,’ she winced, slumping against a tree to catch her breath.
She was out of vulneraries, and Arval was low on energy. The last time she saw anyone was about a week ago. And now she was starving to death because she didn’t stick to the path and instead tried to find a wild deer.
She didn’t know whether to feel embarrassed or to just laugh. It was such a stupid way to die.
‘This is it then,’ she sighed, feeling death’s door open to her. It wouldn’t be a peaceful death, nor how she wanted to die.
But there was nothing she could do.
‘I guess there is one thing,’ she thought, weakly gripping her sword. She unsheathed it, momentarily debating whether or not to do it.
To squeeze a few more hours out of her life or to end her suffering here and now.
Her head snapped up when she heard a rustling of branches. She gripped her sword tightly as she heard something approach, feeling a slight bit of energy return to her.
When the figure finally made itself known, she couldn’t help but stare.
It was a scene straight out of a storybook. A man rushed through the trees, a frying pan of all things in one hand, as he rushed in her direction.
He was nearly out of breath, and as soon as he saw her, he did a double-take.
There was a moment of silence as they just stared at each other, words failing her in the moment.
Before she could say anything, the man reached to his belt, pulling out an all-too-familiar glass  bottle.
“Need this?”
-Soma-
Your Support with Shez has risen to C-Rank!
Two fucking words. Two words were all it needed for her to reach C-Rank, and I’m still at nothing with Claude? Why the fuck is this system so inconsistent?
“Yes, please,” she gasped, quickly downing the bottle in one go, the wound quickly healing itself, leaving only a mark in the clothes where the wound once was.
I didn’t expect to find Shez here. Honestly, I didn’t expect to find her at all. If anyone was supposed to find her, it should have been Claude, Dimitri, and Edelgard. “You a merc?”
“Yeah, but I’m not in any position to fight at the moment. You got any food on you? I haven’t eaten in a while.”
“I’ve got some sandwiches with me,” I replied instantly, before an idea came to me. “How about a trade? My friends are in a bit of trouble at the moment. If I give you my food, will you give them a hand?” I asked, getting a laugh from the girl.
“Sounds like a poor trade,” she laughed. “Give me those sandwiches, and that’s the least I’ll do,” she countered, crossing her arms with an amused smirk. “You’ve already given me your vulnerary. Give me your food, and I’ll owe you a life debt.”
“Knock yourself out,” I said, grabbing the pair of sandwiches from my satchel. Feeling cheeky, I decided to put them in the frying pan. “Order up!”
The girl didn’t hesitate, scarfing the food down, not taking a moment to enjoy the taste or flavour, hunger winning out.
I watched in real time the girl scarf the food down faster than I’d seen professional eaters do. They were filling as well. Venison, thinly sliced, a dash of lettuce, laid over a heavy slab of crusty sourdough.
In less than a minute, my food was gone, the girl letting out a satisfied groan before getting to her feet.
“So where are those friends of yours?”
I wasn’t gone for longer than ten minutes before I came back, this time with a bit of backup.
“That’s my group,” I called, pointing ahead. “The people in uniform. Help anyone you can.”
“Got it,” she nodded, drawing a sword from her back, another appearing in her hand, before charging forward.
I know I am a liability, especially in combat. I have a rudimentary understanding of how to use a sword, and perhaps a frying pan (though the latter was a lot less useful in combat). Nonetheless, the pan was the best weapon I had on me at the moment.
Shez took charge, immediately getting the attention of two of the bandits that were overwhelming Annette, meeting both of them in single combat.
I stayed within the treeline, trying to figure out where I could help, but I kept coming up short. I didn’t want to get in close to anyone doing close-quarters combat, and I especially didn’t want to get anyone that is fighting the bandits with magic.
From the corner of my eye, I saw a bandit with a bow in hand, taking a deep breath before firing a wild shot at Leonie. Leonie nimbly dodged the attack, but she was also preoccupied fighting a bandit of her own.
He wasn’t far away from me. Like me, he was also in the treeline, though a good 20 meters away from me.
Carefully, I approached him from the side, spinning my frying pan in my hand before charging at him. I wasn’t quiet enough; before he could take another shot, he turned to face me.
Instead of a clean knockout like I was hoping for, it became a lot wilder, me floundering with the pan getting random hits in.
I grunted as he used one end of the bow to hit me across the face, allowing him to get some distance.
The man reached for an arrow, only for him to be impaled from behind.
“I thought Claude told you to run,” Felix grunted, pulling out his sword from the man’s body. “Next time, listen to him.”
“I did, thank you very much,” doing my best to ignore the man twitching on the ground. “That’s why you have her.”
Shez was going on a rampage. A trail of dead bodies followed in her wake, though none of them were the students. By the time Felix and I had killed the one bandit, Shez had killed at least five of them.
The students who didn’t have a bandit to fight went to help those who did, turning the once duels into tag team battles, quickly overwhelming our attackers.
“Retreat-ack!!”
The man who tried to make the call was cut short, Lorenz having gotten the upper hand in their fight and now had a spear in his stomach.
“It is a noble’s duty to guard the welfare of the people. Nothing personal.”
With that, the battle was over, with all the bandits finally being defeated.
I did a quick headcount, scowling to myself when I came back short. “Where are the house leaders?”
“You mean you didn’t find Claude?” Hilda asked, panic in her voice. “He said he had to make sure you were safe!”
“As did His Highness,” Dedue intoned.
“Lady Edelgard was no different,” Hubert snapped, wiping some of the blood off his uniform. “We need to assure her safety.”
“Their safety”, I corrected. “But you’re right. The dead, how do we handle them?”
“They’re bandits,” Leonie snorted. “Nature will take care of them. No one died on our side, right?”
“Except for the professor,” Lysithea said softly, making me look over to the man.
Mercedes was looking over the man, and I could see tears going down her face. However, it didn’t stop her from joining her hands in prayer.
I ignored Shez scoffing down the soup that was still in the pot, and focused on the man’s features. His skin was already turning pale, especially his lips. I didn’t like the guy, but I didn’t want him to die.
“We’ll wrap the body up later,” I nodded to the students, silently taking control of the situation. “We’ll let the church know the situation; they can handle the funeral. We need to find Dimitri, Claude, and Edelgard first.”
-Claude-
The bandits outnumbered them by at least two-to-one. Probably even more so. 
As soon as the first shot was fired, he started to think through his approach to the bandits. The first thing he wanted to know was intent. Could the bandits be appeased with riches? Discounting the poor quality of their gear, fighting multiple opponents at once was much harder than fighting one-on-one.
When he noticed that people like Dimitri and Casper had decided to square up against them, he started to calculate his odds of his own survival.
Which is why he surprised even himself when he told Soma to leave, to try to get him out of danger.
He ran not long after, Dimitri and Edelgard following soon afterwards, not wanting to leave him to fend for himself. 
Divide and Conquer. He wanted some to split up and follow him so he could take advantage of the natural terrain
It did follow his intended outcome. Some of the bandits split into a smaller group, following him into the forest. Divide and Conquer and all that.
He kept on running, alongside Edelgard and Dimitri, intent on finding a better position, until they eventually came across Remire Village and a band of mercenaries willing to trade service for coin.
“Claude, climb the watchtower and throw the torches. Shoot when you can. Edelgard, fight beside me. Dimitri, stay with Jeralt.”
And now he had a decent shot of getting out of this alive.
Despite the infantry having the name Jeralt’s Mercenaries, it was his younger daughter who took charge, a woman a few years older than himself named Byleth.
She had a plan, and had the incentive to win this. And so, he obeyed the orders without question, sneakily climbing the watchtower and tossing away the torches.
“Pluck one of the feathers on your arrow, aim above the bush north of Edelgard! Fire when ready.”
He took the shot, his eyes widening when the arrow curved in mid-air, hitting a hidden bandit, the likely leader of the brigands.
The man stumbled, walking aimlessly before he fell to the ground.
“Form up!” Byleth called, and like before, he obeyed without hesitation.
However, he tensed when he noticed the bandit leader jump to his feet to charge at Edelgard.
The girl had lost her axe; he could still see the splintered blade and handle in the grass below. What she did have was a dagger and not much else for protection.
However, before the two could clash, Byleth intervened, drawing her blade and slashing viciously.
The man was sent back by the force of the attack. He was disarmed, the axe spinning widely in the air before it landed in one of the nearby trees.
He let out the breath he was holding in, a small smile coming onto his face.
One that got all the wider once he saw familiar company.
“The Knights of Seiros are here!” Alois announced himself, his axe bared. “We’ll cut you down for terrorizing our students!”
“Let’s get outta here!” the bandit cried, hurriedly running away into the treeline now that he was outnumbered, but he didn’t get far.
Not when a sword appeared in his chest, stopping him directly in his tracks.
“So this is the guy who was hunting you down? Doesn’t seem like much,” a girl he didn’t recognise remarked, but he started to relax as more people entered the clearing.
The girl was followed by Soma, and then the rest of the students in his year.
“My Lady!”/”Your Highness!” Hubert and Dedue, the ever-loyal retainers, rushed to their lord's side, fretting and fussing over their respective charges.
For a brief moment, he felt a spike of jealousy, one that he quashed just as instantly.
“Claude!” Soma called, making him jump. “You made it out alive. Thank fuck.”
Just for a second, he thought he saw Edelgard glare at him, but it didn’t quite register with him. He stood there, stunned for a moment before a laugh escaped him.
In that moment, he felt happy.
-Soma-
Your Support with Claude has risen to C-Rank!
Oh, for fuck’s sake, I give up. This system makes no fucking sense. If I try to understand it, I’ll go mad.
I let out a small, relieved sigh, happy that the day was over. It’s been one thing after another, and what I needed now more than anything was rest.
“It’s you.”
The two words brought me back into the moment, making me snap my head towards Byleth.
Shit, “Shez!” I wheezed, but before I could say anything else, I was too late.
Metal met metal, blade meeting blade. The explosive force of the clash sent sparks flying into the air.
“Found you, Ashen Demon,” Shez hissed, a sharp, dangerous grin breaking across her face. “I told you we’d settle this.” 
The night was far from over.