So close, but no

Solon was furious. He almost ignored the knights that had previously surrounded him and attempted to take him in. He had expected to be seen through eventually, as slow as these surface dwelling creatures were, but someone had attacked him with a thrown candlestick! Who - Of course, it would have to be the Fell Star! Looking up at him from the bottom of the stairs, he readied a spell and began firing at the monster before him.

Byleth was hoping 'Tomas' would have stayed down longer from what was effectively a long flaming spear. He advanced, taking care to try and avoid his spells. He had to use an extra divine pulse once already before he got in close enough to strike him across the shoulder with his blade, but he simply countered with Nosferatu to heal most of the damage.

The biggest obstacle was how to disable him to avoid killing him though. No matter how much he was physically hurt, he seemed to be able to keep fighting. He lost another Pulse just trying to keep him from killing a guard to regenerate. He tried one last swing to pin him down, but he managed to knock him back to get the distance he needed to teleport away.

'Come on... just one more pulse...' he thought, trying to access Sothis's ability. "You can't!' Sothis shouted in his head. "Between the 2+ you spent on that one during the mission and the three now, you don't have any left!"

Byleth grit his teeth in frustration before taking a deep breath. He sheathed his sword before helping one of the fallen guards up, before looking back at Shez, who was standing there, looking like they realized something.

"Are you okay, Shez?" He asked her, making her suddenly shake her head. "Nope, nothing Professor."

Looking her over, he decided just to drop it for now. They had failed to capture the fake Tomas. Hopefully Rhea would at least understand they did the best they could...