Age of Destruction: Fire Emblem CYOA

I agree with mystics plan.

Shep attacks one of the elder baels with light magic.  It takes heavy damage and lunges at him while on its last leg.  He dodges out of the way and calls down a large blast of light.  Sylvia faces down another bael, unleashing a huge burst of flame around it.  It leaps forward and bites her, injecting toxins into her arm.  She yells and jumps back, blindly throwing fireballs until the spider is incinerated.  Allune ignores the flames flying to her side and takes careful aim at the doog.  She exhales as she looses the arrow and it thuds into its neck.  Drake starts moving towards the new dragon.  Isana cheers him on as he goes.

Lily pulls back and attacks one of the baels with a barrage of magic.  Stella goes running to tend to her burns.  Suarrure goes to her side and begins dancing for her.  "Don't f-"

"I know what I'm doing!  Stop following me!  Hssss!"  Stella hisses at him.  She turns to Rhett and begins treating him, as well.

Gale and Gin work together to bring down the bael between then.  The nearby doog leaps at Gale's exposed flank, but she ducks his attack and slashes him as he passes.  Kurt slips into the fight to throw a dagger at the mogall.  It falls to the ground, dead.  He's surprised when a bael jumps at him instead of going after Gin, and it rakes its claw against his armor.  "Ugh...  But you're wide open!"  He brings up a pair of knives and stabs them into either side of its neck.  The bael flails wildly as it collapses, flinging him away.

Pixie slashes the last of the mogalls with her talons.  It summons several magical rings as it pulls back, and she effortlessly flies through them as she closes in.  She stabs it with her beak, then flings its corpse to the ground.  "I...  I did it!"  She looks proud of herself.

Quinn drops a bolt of lightning on the nearby doog.  It ignores him and leaps back with a howl, then quickly leaps forward and tears into Nevyn's shoulder.  Nevyn yells and throws it off, then brings his axe down on it before it recovers.  The bael skitters at Quinn and stabs at his back.  Quinn rolls out of the way and drops more lightning on the bael.  It hisses in pain.

Alice attacks the witch, surrounding her with a wave of black spheres.  The witch lets out another shriek as she suddenly disappears, appearing beside Alice as the spheres crash into the empty air.  She draws close enough that the pair could embrace as more flames begin to appear.  Alice screams and drops to the ground as a large flame crashes into her back.  She takes a deep breath and forces herself up, weaving through the overwhelming wall of dancing flames.  Alice prepares to unleash another spell when she feels a stabbing pain in her ankle.  She quickly turns and redirects the spell into the doog trying to hold her in place.  She instinctively leaps to the side as soon as it falls, a huge ball of flame crashing into where she'd stood a moment before.

"Alice!  Just hold on-" Rand tries to help her, but the dragon roars and unleashes a swirling purple mist.  It knocks Rand aside, and he turns to deal with the dragon instead.

"The bastard prince..." the dragon says in a deep, ominous tone.

"What?  Basta- What are you talking about?"

The dragon smirks.  "Where is your brand, little 'prince?'"

"Shut up!"  He slams it twice with his axe with almost no noticeable effect.  The dragon attacks again, sending Rand and Hector crashing to the ground.  He and Alice, badly injured, share a glance with each other.  "Just... hold on...!"

Nevyn leaps at the dragon's back and slams it with his axe.

The dragon glances over his shoulder.  "The disgraced captain's son..."

"What?  How do you know of-"

"He could have been a general.  He could have been great.  If not for your mother..."

"You know nothing of my parents!"

"Then why do I hear doubt in your voice?"

"I-"

Nevyn's cut off as the dragon whips his tail around and slams him aside.

---

---

Alice: 2/15
Rand: 2/15
Nevyn: 7/17
Quinn: 8/14
Pixie: 14/16
Rhett: 14/15
Lily: 10/14
Kurt: 7/13
Stella: 12/14
Suarrure: 13/14
Drake: 15/20
Sylvia: 13/14, poisoned
Isana: 10/14

Shep and Sylvia concentrate their magic on the bael, while Isana and Allune attack the doog.  With this end of the village secure, the pegasus knights move on to aid with the rest of the fighting throughout the village.

Drake transforms as he runs.  He barrels into the larger, white dragon, then tears at him with his claws.  The white dragon knocks him off, then breaths another burst of mist.  Drake shields himself with his wings, unfurling them to roar at the intruder.  "You are not welcome here!"

"You are satisfied to merely live out your life as a pet?" the white dragon demands.

"I am no pet!" Drake snarls.

"To choose subservience... you are lower than a slave.  You may no longer wear shackles, but you have forgotten your pride as a dragon!"

"I don't know what this guy's talking about, but it's time you shut him up!" Suarrure insists.  "Go!"

Drake leaps at the monster again, biting and tearing at it.  The two lock in combat, thrashing too violently for others to approach.

Meanwhile, Alice and the witch continue to battle.  Flames now surround Alice, constantly barraging her from all sides as she desperately evades through them.  She sees an opening and attacks the witch again.  She shrugs off the blast like it's nothing.  Pixie comes flying in to help, raking her claws against the witch's back.  The witch screams in pain, her flames suddenly launching at the crow.  Pixie's knocked out of the sky, reverting to her human form on the ground.

Quinn runs in, drawing his sword.  Recognition flashes through the witch's eyes.  "You... Quinn..."  He doesn't respond.  Instead, he leaps into the air and stabs the witch through the breast.  "No...  Why...?" she murmurs.  Her glowing golden hair fades and she seems to flicker out of existence.

The dragon flashes, suddenly shrinking into its fox form.  It weaves out of combat with Drake, darting to where the witch vanished.  Dark blue runes appear in the air, taking a vaguely humanoid shape.  The witch reappears and immediately collapses, landing on the fox's back.  The fox takes off running towards the south.

"Don't let them escape...!" Lily calls.

He's moving too fast for most people to give chase.  Pixie is unconscious, and Quinn and Nevyn are busy cleaning up the last few monsters.  Stella's too busy tending to the injured - she has to physically restrain Alice from following the pair.  An injured Rand tries to give chase, but soon loses sight of them in the dimly lit trees.  Allune and Gale join in, but the fox has too much of a head start.  By the time they close in, the witch is awake.  Allune fires an arrow, but their prey disappears with a burst of magic.  Gale and Allune have no option but to go back empty-handed.

"Sorry, Lily.  They got away..." Gale apologizes, still out of breath after the trip back.  She flops to the ground.  "I tried..."

"I know, Gale."  Lily crouches down and rubs her head.  "Are you OK?  You were hurt pretty bad..."

Gale sighs wearily.  She closes her eyes at Lily's touch.  "Just... don't stop," she pleads.

Alice reaches out to stroke Allune's wing, but the hawk pulls away and shakes her head.  "You... er, I'm fine."

---

The sun is rising by the time everyone enters the village.  Alice runs to her parents and immediately embraces them.  "Mother...  Father...  I'm so glad we made it in time.  Are you alright?"

"Yes, yes, we're fine...  But what about you?  Are you-" Mary asks.  She's replaced her usual thick, ornamental robes with the thinner, more revealing outfit she uses when dancing.

John pulls back and examines his daughter.  "She's burned... badly.  Hold on, I'll have you fixed up in a heartbeat."

Alice doesn't argue.  "What happened here?" she asks.

"You saw her, didn't you?  The... witch?" Mary asks.  Alice nods.  Mary takes a deep breath.  "She appeared shortly - no, the night after you left.  At first, I actually thought she was... you."

Lily blinks.  There was some resemblance, maybe.  "Why would you think that?" she asks.

Mary seems to notice the others for the first time.  "Ah!  Princess Lily!  Prince Rand!"  She gives them a formal bow.  After the introductions are done, she continues.  "You should know better than anyone, princess.  We practitioners of the dark arts walk a dangerous line.  And Alice has just enough training to get herself in real trouble, perhaps making a pact with the wrong spirits."  She looks her daughter up and down with a smile, noticing her new outfit.  "Not to say I'm not glad to see her following in my footsteps.  She's only been gone for a few days, but she's grown so much..."

Lily clears her throat.  "We saw the witch summoning monsters, but... those laguz...?"

Mary's smile fades.  Several laguz freeze.  "They were...  Shortly after the witch appeared, some of our tribesmen began complaining of headaches.  Some of them just... lost themselves.  They transformed and began to attack others.  More and more every night...  We were so busy with them and the monsters, we couldn't deal with the witch." Mary shakes her head.  "I can only hope we've seen the last one."

"Ma'am!"  The lead pegasus knight alights beside Lily.  "We've finished securing the village, and we're pushing out to make sure no more monsters are lurking in the woods."

Lily nods.  "Thank you."

The pegasus knight salutes and returns to the air.

"More troops will be here soon.  If that witch comes back, they'll drive her off," Lily promises.  "We'll stay here until they relieve us, then I'm afraid we have to go."

"You all must be exhausted from marching all night..." Mary says.  "Especially you, Stella.  You should all rest until then.  I'll have rooms prepared for you."

Lily/Gale A
Rand/Alice B
Storm/Zenia B
Gale/Hawke B
Shep/Kelly B
Alice/Rhett B
Nevyn/Fei B
Harv/Zenia B
Pixie/Suarrure C
Stella/Hyun'Ji C
Quinn/Sylvia C
Kurt/Carin C

Wait, do we have Lily/Gin C yet?

Yes, and B should have been an option...

Stella's C with Gin.
I'd say 40%'s probably a better estimate...? I could count, but meh, lazy.

Ya'll've got plenty of time to explore different pairings to find ones you like. And there'll be less - what's a good term? - cooldown between advancing pairings as time goes on. I'd say you need to start worrying about prioritizing babbies after... eh, about the time you unlock tier 3 units.

Lily/Gale A
Lily/Mina B
Lily/Alice B
Rand/Alice B
Rand/Kurt B
Storm/Zenia B
Alice/Rhett B
Alice/Carin B
Nevyn/Fei B
Harv/Zenia B
Alice/Zenia C
Gale/Zenia C

But Lily/Gin is the ultimate combo. They fight so well together.