-Ouki-
Ouki Mitagi watched the battle play out. With a discerning eye he could tell Moubu's formation had worked. While the Zhao and Qin were equal in number, and the Zhao army was filled with more experience and elite soldiers, the ripple effect Moubu had tried to make had shaken the Zhao formation and allowed them to return to even footing. The losses were high on both sides, but it was at least an equal match.
When on the defensive, the equal losses were acceptable. It was Zhao who was overextending itself by going into enemy territory, not Qin.
Although if Moubu's reputation was to be believed, he would make the Zhao pay for it. Moubu's plan was to curl his right-most flank into the side of the Zhao vanguard and pierce through like a spear to the heart.
Another plume of fire erupted within the Zhao line, and Ouki raised an eyebrow. He knew of no one who could control fire like that. Well... not since the Dragmire clan and the Majora witches. "Dragmire..." His blood curled. As much as he appreciated the effort Ganondorf Dragmire was putting in on behalf of Qin, and was being as loud as possible about it, just knowing a Dragmire was in his ranks made his blood churn with anger.
Once he called the Dragmire's friend.
Now he had nothing but hate for them. They had betrayed Qin. They had betrayed him. They had taken from him everything he held dear.
Ouki took a breath and forced the emotions away. He knew to be calm as high general. "Send my orders to the commander Matsubi and commander Kei Ki. General Moubu is forcing Zhao into a stalemate here. They know what they must do."
"Sir!" An officer saluted, and orders were relayed by flag signals to the distant command centers of their eastern and western flanks.
He looked onto the battlefield and saw a group of things charge forward toward the middle battle that he had never seen before, at least in not such numbers. He had seen one or two of them before, but this many?
"Chariots!" The Englishman exclaimed. "They have chariots?!"
"You are familiar with them?"
"Yes, sir. They are terrible on infantry! If we do not do something, our forces will be torn apart!"
"Infantry..." Ouki looked on the battlefield with a strategic eye. The chariots were charging towards the right flank where Moubu was fighting. "They mean to circle around and cut off Moubu from the rest of his army!" Ouki looked to the Englishman. "Go and prepare your strike force! Zhao will not settle for a stalemate. They seek to take Moubu's head!"
The Englishman saluted and departed.
True to his prediction, the fleet of chariots turned suddenly into Qin's line behind Moubu, cutting him and his elite off from the rest of the army and encircling him. Only... rather than target Moubu... the chariots charged into the Qin line from east to west.
They were not aiming merely to trap Moubu, they were aiming to kill as many Qin as they could.
"This... could be bad." Ouki realized. He had not predicted Zhao would muster a technology he had never heard of. Moubu was strong, and he had faith Moubu would not die to such a cheap tactic, but this still would mean a drastic loss of life and could mean defeat in the long-term.
-Link-
Try as they might, Link found they could barely keep up with the Zhao. The Qin soldiers had powerful momentum going in, thanks to Moubu, but the momentum only went so far. It was at this point that the true flaws of a peasant army revealed itself. Everywhere Link looked men were being cut down. His triangle flared to life, and he sprung into the fray wherever he could find it, but for every Zhao he cut down, two more took their place. It was quickly getting to the point that Link could barely keep up. Thankfully, he had a team. Every group he threw himself at quickly noticed he was the greatest contender of the moment, and Hei, Tou, and Solitare made sure he was never surrounded. They had his back and did as Ganon instructed: They worked together and focused on the same targets.
Link also started to be able to figure Solitare out a bit. The kid did not use magic. He used something else, something more inane. The kid was a complete nobody, able to blend into crowds with ease, and was easy to overlook in any environment. Combine that lack of presence with a chaotic environment and the boy was a ghost. Trying to find the kid was like trying to glimpse a star in broad daylight. Solitare's lack of presence was only amplified by Link's very loud and powerful presence, to the extent that the Sheikah became Link's personal shadow. Link could only catch glimpses of him out of the corner of his eye, but he felt assured the Sheikah was always near. Wherever the boy went, death followed. He was incredibly fast and seemed to dance and glide like an ice skater.
That was not to say it was not difficult. The Zhao were veterans. More than a few times Link found himself barely able to evade a blow, despite predicting them, and stepping away with a cut across his skin and clothes. Once he blocked a blow from a particularly strong foe, and it knocked him into the air and back. He rolled across the ground, and managed to climb to his feet and block another strike to the head. The second blow nearly crushed him. He stabbed the man in the foot, and his team came to his rescue.
In this way, they survived the battle. Link could no longer recall how many he had killed. He could not count, and even if he could, they were too many to count. Hei and Tou could probably guess how many they had killed, they could count and their kill-count was far fewer. He also bet Solitare could count, though whether he bothered counting his kills was unknown. The boy rarely talked.
They cut down another Zhao, and looked around to look for more. What they found astounded them. There was the sound of a storm.
The Zhao were in full retreat.
"What?" Link wondered. Why were the Zhao retreating? There were more of them than Qin, and the Zhao were on the verge of winning by sheer quality. The Qin numbers were scant few compared to their original number. Of the thousand to start with, there were perhaps three or four hundred left. They were spaced out and had lost most of their cohesion.
"They're running!" Hei cheered. Fresh tears rolled down his face as joy overcame him. They had survived! "We did it!"
"We did. We... won. I can't believe it." Tou smiled in relief.
He collapsed his butt onto a body and wiped the sweat and blood from his face. He only ended up smearing more blood on his face, as his bare hands were covered. He had gripped his spear so long, and so tightly, that his hands had blistered and the blisters had burst. He was also on his third spear, as the first two broke from heavy use. Hei was on his tenth, mostly breaking it in blocking a blow.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Solitare simply panted. His legs shook from exhaustion. His white clothes were now red.
Link did not comment. He did not believe it. His instincts told him something was wrong. The sound of a storm continued on. There were dark clouds in the horizon... but it sounded wrong.
In the distance he saw Ganon. The black man was covered in blood from head to toe and everywhere around him the ground was burnt or lit with small flames. The man did not give chase to the Zhao, but rather turned back to the Qin and marched toward Link. Kagami pranced by his master's side, tongue out and smiling with pride in accomplishing the hunt.
"Something is wrong." "I don't like the look of this." They both said at once. They blinked in surprise, and Ganon smirked. "Then we are of the same mind, pup."
"Why would they be in retreat?" Link wondered.
"Who cares! We won! Don't jinx it!" Hei pointed furiously at Link.
"Can't say..." Ganon mused. "Moubu could have killed their commander, or they could be moving under orders from the command. We can't see how the rest of the battlefield is playing out, so I can't guess. Either way, we will not be leaving without orders."
"Wha?!" Hei yelled.
"We can't." Ganon repeated. He glared at Link's friend. "If you still have the energy to yell, then you didn't try hard enough. Now be quiet."
"Aye." Hei whispered. He stepped behind Tou.
"They are annoying, aren't they?" Link shook his head.
Ganon's eye twitched. 'You're one to talk.' He thought.
The sound of the storm continued on, and at this point Ganon saw a dust cloud in the distance. While the others argued and bickered, his attention was on the distance. He allowed them the loudness, it was good for soldiers to release some of the tension, and it showed they were handling the stress somehow. His own soldiers were the same way, so here he found it acceptable.
The dust cloud continued to grow. Ganon narrowed his eyes. Kagami stirred and growled.
Men in the distance retreated from the dust cloud, and he saw horses appear in the cloud. Not just horses, but some kind of box tied to them with men in it. The Zhao men had spears and shot arrows at the survivors, and their horses trampled them, and the horse-drawn metal carts trampled them, and spears extended from the wheels of the carts skewered anyone who managed to get out of the way.
They were chariots. In ancient times they would be comparable to tanks.
"Incoming! There!" Ganon barked.
He pulled his swords from his back. Everyone quieted down and looked to where his attention lied. Qin fled the horses, and those around them also retreated.
"I blame you!" Hei yelled at Link.
"Hide!" Link exclaimed. Not seeing any place to hide, and without waiting for an answer, he stared to pile bodies up. With the seconds passing by quickly, and their options running out, Hei and Tou helped him pile up bodies. Solitare was nowhere to be seen, no surprise there. Ganon picked up the nearest, heaviest spear he could find, and crouched down behind the pile of bodies they made. The four of them hid.
Some Qin saw what they were doing, and decided to do the same, piling up bodies to hide behind.
The chariots came upon them.
All the Qin to flee were torn apart in showers of limbs and blood or were trampled by the stampede of horses. It was not just one chariot, or two, but many. Dozens of chariots rode by. Most weaved between the bodily barricades made, and some bumped into them, causing bodies to collapse. And when the skewers on the end of the wheels dug into the corpse barricades, blood and guts flew everywhere.
Bodies fell on Link and company and blood sprayed all over them, Hei yelled as his mouth was open from panting; but they were alive. As the final chariot sped by, Ganon stepped out and tried to hit one with his swords, but he stopped short. His swords were long, but he still didn't have the reach to cut the riders with the spear-heads extending out of the wheels.
Ganon growled. He watched as the chariots disappeared into the distance, their work done. The bodies all over the battlefield were torn apart, and the Qin to have lived this far were also torn apart. Of the original thousand, there were perhaps now one hundred or so.
It was a massacre. Not one chariot was defeated.
A few more chariots were left to go. Ganon retreated back behind cover, but as the chariot came upon him, he realized it was too little too late. The chariot rider had a bow aimed at him.
The chariot exploded and collapsed on itself. Wheels crumbled, horses fell, the chariot skidded to a stop, and the men riding it were flung forwards over the edge and crushed beneath as it skidded over them.
Tou, Hei, and Link gaped. Link asked, "How did you-?"
"I didn't." Ganon answered, equally surprised. His eyes widened in surprise. It was like a miracle had saved him. Had Din...?
The answer came in the gentle panting of a Sheikah boy standing atop the corpse barricade. A second chariot came near, and Solitare, in a burst of speed, leaped down, grabbed a spear, and charged the chariot head on. At the last moment, Solitare leaped to the side high into the air, and threw the spear.
The chariot exploded like the first.
"Amazing..." Link whispered.
"How?" Ganon wondered in disbelief. How could this boy destroy the chariot with something so simple?
Link, though, saw it. He recognized it. His mind grasped what the Sheikah had done. So when a third chariot had come upon them, and it came at Solitare, Link acted. Solitare collapsed in exhaustion. He could not get out of the way. Link grabbed a spear, ran atop a barricade, and threw it.
The chariot did not explode on itself the way the first two had, but a wheel did come off and the whole thing skidded and the Zhao men riding it fell off, to their deaths.
"Everyone!" Link exclaimed as loud as he could. He looked to the survivors that remained. Some he recognized as men who had blown him off days before, but that didn't matter to him. They were men he didn't want to see die without saying something about it. On the Qin's part, they looked at him in awe. They had not seen the Sheikah destroy the chariots, but they had seen Link. "Do as I do! Pile up the bodies! Put shields and spears into them! Brace yourself against them! Hold up shields against the arrows, do not get close, and if you have an opening take the strongest spear you can muster and threw it at the wheels! Do not aim for the men! Do not aim for the horses, they are armored! Aim for the wheels!"
Link saw the commander of the thousand-army dead nearby. The flag of Qin was crumbled under the man's dead horse. Link, compelled to do something, grabbed the flag, and found one of the Zhao horses was yet alive. The horse struggled to its feet, and driven by some form of instinct, Link climbed atop it. On the horses' part, it was well trained and did not give him problems as untrained animals do. It did not know whether to associate the boy with friend or foe. "Spread the word! Qin holds here!"
"Hei! Tou!" Link yelled. "Grab Solitare and take him back with Ganon!" The two sprung to action, grabbing the boy and hiding once more behind cover.
Ganon could only watch in amazement. Something different had come over the boy. This was not the same child that he had met those years ago. The boy had no idea what he was doing. He was acting, most likely, solely on instinct and desperation with the sole thought to do what he could. Ganon greatly doubted Link even knew he was acting like a leader.
But he was.
Ganon smirked. He could respect this side of him.
"Do it!"
"Do as he says!"
"Help me get this together!"
The Qin all around scavenged anything and everything they could. Among the survivors were strong men mixed with soldiers, so when the chariots turned around and came back, the Zhao found they had come across a drastically different battlefield. All across the area, where dust cloud filled the air, was a collection of barricades braced with shields, spears, and with their muscles braced against it. The chariots scattered through them like a flowing river.
Qin sprung its trap. Spears jutted out of the barricades into the wheels, as directed. Many men failed and lost their hands, arms, or head in the process, but all across the area chariots suddenly found themselves destroyed.
Among the battle a horsemen appeared out of the smoke, and a Zhao chariot rider turned to see a Qin teenage boy riding a Zhao horse. In his hand was a flag-spear of Qin. The Zhao thrust his spear to hit Link, but Link had kept himself out of reach. He wasn't aiming for the man. Instead, he thrust the spear into the wheel beside him.
Many chariots survived the pass, but enough did not that as they retreated, a mighty cheer came out. A cheer so loud that Ouki, who could not see what was happening in the dust cloud from the distance, could hear.