The last battle.. [Orochi plot start.]

takenaka-hanbei:

sonsakudono:

deceivingdancer:

During the march forward, it seemed the pairs of two had been separated slightly, for the waves of grey men that pushed their way into their formation were relentless. With a heavy heart, Diaochan heard the noise of Hanbei’s bladed compass skitter to the ground, and truly she was trying her best to fight off the men that surrounded her. If she could break through this crowd, then she could help Hanbei. He needed to survive this, he.. he was just a kid for god’s sake.. Twirling, Diaochan’s whip cut into grey flesh as easily as it had back home when battling.

Yet when one fell, twelve were more than happy to take its place. “Guys!” Diaochan shouted over the dying soldiers, over the weapons clashing and screaming into one another. “We will exhaust ourselves much too soon if we stay here and fight!” She slid forward on her knees, the whip above her head spinning and cutting into troops- which had brought her closer to Hanbei and Motonari. “My friends, please don’t give up just yet.” She chanced the moment to smile at Hanbei- though the gesture did not meet her eyes. “We must fight for our future.” Was this a future even worth fighting for..?

Of course, that mindset did her no good!

“I believe the best course of action is to dance our way in a straight line through their flanks, and make a brave rush for the first ballista. We will be exhausted by the time we even get to the first one if we keep this up.” Although she was no strategist, she figured it was a good idea. They needed to come up with a plan and quickly. “Lord Sun Ce, please lead the way! Your prowess on the battlefield is exactly what we need to drive our forces further.”

With another loud war cry, Sun Ce smashed one tonfa into the ground, his eyes narrowing as the sheer power emitted a shockwave that scattered a bit of the demon soldiers. As he watched them topple and lay there, he turned toward Diaochan and the other remaining troops and pointed ahead at the ballista. The path was clear for them and it would be swarming with troops once again unless they got to that siege weapon.

“Let’s go! Now!” he commanded, nodding once and then running straight toward the ballista, even as he heard the Hydra’s earth shattering roar cut through the air and then the yell of hundreds of demon soldiers as they began to advance upon their remaining forces.

Ce couldn’t die here, not yet. The Hydra had to pay for ripping everything he and his sworn friend Zhou Yu worked so hard to build. It needed to pay for taking his family away, either by killing them or forcing them to flee and separate and be subjected to the other dangers that had lurked this world. His father would not want to meet him in the afterlife, it was much too soon.

His body clamored for some kind of rest; they needed to escape and really regroup, they simply had to or else they would die here. There must have been some kind of escape route nearby in case the siege weapons didn’t work on Hydra. Too focused on the battle, he hadn’t surveyed but too much of the area; Zhou Yu would have been the one doing that, or at least Quan would have. Even Zhou Tai of all people would have been mindful of this, but even his newfound officer was forced to go into hiding somewhere…or maybe he was killed…

“Hanbei, Motonari,” he began as they ran down the newly cleared pathway, “I hope  you guys have a plan B…” 

“We will exhaust ourselves much too soon if we stay here and fight!” Hanbei faintly heard Diaochan’s voice in the distance.

Slowly regaining his balance with the help of Motonari, Hanbei managed to stand up  on his feet. With his strength slowly building up, he also managed to open his eyes. 

He looked around for his bladed compass. Without his weapon, Hanbei and Motonari would not get passed the soldiers easily.

One glance. Hanbei saw Diaochan resisting against the soldiers as she made her escape. A second glance. He saw Sun Ce beginning to retreat. Hanbei looked just a bit more longer, before noticing his blade shine in the distance, and he began to run towards it.

“Whoa! Out of my way!” he said, pushing a nearby orochi soldier, falling head first towards the ground and revealing Hanbei’s weapon. Snatching the weapon off the ground, he swung the compass around him, killing the enemies surrounding him. 

“Motonari! We’ve got to get out of here!” 

To be honest? Motonari couldn’t have agreed more. They were outnumbered greatly; they wouldn’t survive, and he knew it. So what was the next plan? Retreat, naturally. They couldn’t live through this—especially not now with Kiyomori’s appearance and the ballistas doing little to no damage on the hydra heads. Maybe if they had more firepower… More strength, more people on their side. Of course, he was now dwelling on ‘what ifs’, but really… If they had all just co-operated to begin with, their sad excuse for a militia would have been able to overcome their most recent tragedy… But then again, wasn’t the threat always present? Just ignored for their own conveniences… Ah, how familiar that tune sounded. It was just like previous battles fought throughout history. Every opposing force eventually crushed and put down… This should have been foreseen. They never stood a chance from the very beginning. Fate made it so.

The moment Hanbei made a run for it, Motonari followed suit. With whatever strength he had left, he sprinted from his position and followed behind his younger ally. He didn’t take the time to aim and shoot with his automatic, multi-arrow mounted bow, but instead ducked beneath swinging weapons with laboured breaths. He was panting—no, heaving. He needed to get out of there, they all did.

“R – Retreat!” He called as best he could. While his voice was already meek to begin with, his heart hammering within his throat made his attempt at warning even more difficult. He, nonetheless, managed to catch up to Hanbei, and thereafter Sun Ce and Diao Chan despite the muscles in his legs and his lungs burning, head pounding and body heavy. They needed to make their exit back the way they came—to the north west. At least if they were able to make it back to camp, they’d be able to catch their breath and think up another plan of battle… Or wait out their inevitable deaths.

“…Quickly! Retreat!” He steadied his voice, at least, though it was weaker as he attempted to pick up the pace and further warn his remaining comrades. What from there? Would they be caught in the Hydra’s crossfire and Kiyomori’s attacks? Or could they escape and mend their physical and emotional wounds once more? How much more could they actually take of this? Motonari’s outlook was grim; if taken from history, there was little they could do to actually make a comeback. He wasn’t about to lie down and die, but they couldn’t fight it alone either…

There had to be another option…

Maybe this was a dream? Maybe it wasn’t real…

It couldn’t have been.

The last battle.. [Orochi plot start.]

takenaka-hanbei:

sonsakudono:

deceivingdancer:

This was to be it, all of the survivors had pulled together for this last ditch effort. The Hydra had ruined everything, quite literally. Towns that had taken weeks of constructing and planning were ruined in seconds. People that had grown to call this hellish dimension home were destroyed and devoured by the serpent like demon, who, at this point, seemed to come for no reason. They were unable to catch a break, and one by one friends, families, lovers and enemies were torn from each other- for the embrace of death was one that cared not about relationships. The remaining warriors were unable to catch any sort of footing, which is what brought about this brash plan.

They were going to attack the Hyrda, head-on. It was a very dumb plan, they all had agreed on.. But they were all driven into a corner. With no way of setting up safety, they needed to be bold and sudden. This was the perfect, and only chance they had at rebuilding a broken world.

Yet Diaochan knew, somehow, deep in the depths of her heart that this was going to end up terribly. Passion alight in her eyes, she steeled herself for the coming hell.
My lord Lu Bu, this will be for you. I shall avenge your death. 

 They had no horses left, and so they marched, Diaochan stood next to Sun Ce who had been the one to comfort her after her lord passed. “This.. is the final battle, my friends.” She whispered quietly to Sun Ce, Motonori and Hanbei, eyes empty and lacking passion. “I would like to say if.. one of us does not make it out of this, that I am honored to have made it this far, among you warriors. I promise to give my best in this battle, to purge the darkness of this land.” Her grip tightened around her whip’s handle. Already the giant serpent heads were visible, as were the grey blobs of Orochi soldiers.

Fear set in, wispy tendrils of bitter cold that tugged and pulled at her chest.

{Sun Ce next, then Hanbei, then Motonori?} 

The appearance of his eight-headed hellbeast—as Sun Ce called it—had all but destroyed everything, even what he and Zhou Yu had worked so hard to build. Even then, when the monster appeared and then countless demon soldiers, Sun Ce had been separated from his best friend and sworn brother. He didn’t even know if his sister was safe, or if his new found comrade Taishi Ci made it out alive. With every roar, the Hydra simply divided his forces and conquered, snatching up buildings, devouring people and making most of them flee.

Just when Sun Ce thought it couldn’t get worse, the damned thing started spewing fire, adding to the growing heap of mayhem and before he knew it he had no choice but to flee from the Hydra and make plans to start again. Angry and frustrated, he traveled for what seemed like days, trying to catch a bit of breathing space; with what little men he had left over, he had to conserve as much as he could, having learned something from Zhou Yu and even Cheng Pu for that matter.

Only as he briefly lamented his father, who had been missing as well, did he realize that not only his men were suffering, but some straggling soldiers were too. The first that came to mind was the maiden Diaochan, who had lost someone dear to her. At a time like this, any kind of help sufficed and he remembered sticking by her in her time of grief and choosing to remain there even as they had met more leftover people who had desperately wanted to get rid of the Hydra.

“It is…and we can’t lose this one…” he responded, angry at himself for not beliving his own words and because he was backed into a corner and in a position where he had to accept defeat. There was no silver lining to this darkened cloud that hung over his head and the heads of everyone else.

“We have to hit this thing fast and as hard as we can! We have to keep going…” he insisted before he turned to look at Diaochan, “We’re going to make it out of this alive.”

That self-hatred reared its ugly head again, and he could hear little conviction in his own voice. 

Damn it all…

Hanbei could sense the Hydra’s bloodthirsty desire to destroy and kill all in its path. More and more demon soldiers kept appearing in just a blink of an eye as the Hydra roared into the gloomy sky.

“Alright… Lets get this finished so we can go home.” Hanbei said to himself. All he really did want was a peaceful nap underneath a cherry blossom tree. But that had to be put aside for a while, as the Hydra made it impossible right now.

Soldiers surrounded him, leaving Hanbei isolated. He swung his weapon in many directions to cut a path, but it was useless. There were too many enemies attacking him at once. It was too much pressure for the boy to handle. He collapsed onto the ground in exhaustion, his bladed sundial skidding away from him.

Gazing up into the sky was a complete blur. Plenty more demon soldiers charging towards him were just blobs of gray.

“I think I’ve made my grave a bit early…” Hanbei whispered with the remaining energy left in him. Everything seemed hopeless for him. He was too weak to yell for help. The world to Hanbei dissolved away from him in seconds, as Hanbei slowly closed his eyes.

So many dreams were dashed, so many deaths… Not even the pages of history could assist them with this now. The purpose of history’s study was to prevent the mistakes of the past—to learn from them and work to a better future, however it said nothing of defeating a hydra, nor did it suggest now to repair what was lost. Even if they were to slay it here and now by some otherworldly miracle, what would they do? Could they really continue on and survive? There was only a handful of people remaining, so where would things go from there? His thoughts were negative, but broad and realistic. Was this really the best course of action? Was there really any point of their struggle for survival? Personally, it wasn’t something he could vouch for, but he would fight to help defend those who fought for something. They were all he had left, after all.

There had been ballistas set up in various places, and at this point it seemed to be their only hope to take down the Hydra, but to get to them, they needed to cut through hundreds, if not thousands of grey-skinned warriors defending the very beast with their lives. How they could defend such a creature was beyond him.  Serving a man, perhaps, but a beast? What was its purpose? The very thought caused an involuntary shudder to ripple through his body. He could afford to think of those things now… Perhaps before his final rest, he’d be able to mull the question over with his dying breaths. Ah, rest… That sounded divine right about now. He was tired… So tired.

Despite his heavy eyes and tired limbs, his attention came to his stumbling comrade who’d collapsed to the ground in fatigue. Turning quickly on his toes, Motonari reached out to grab the nearest soldier to Hanbei and tossed him back before firing waves of arrows from his weapon. Taking down the surrounding soldiers, Motonari huffed and leaned over to grab his ally’s North Star before closing the distance between them and grabbing his shoulders to help him up.

“Don’t give up,” he sighed calmly, struggling through his own exhaustion to pull Hanbei to his feet, “our efforts—everyone’s efforts will be for naught.” Everything they built up until now regardless of the horrors and destruction setting them back at square one… He couldn’t let it all be erased. All that remained of the past was their memories, though it needed to be kept alive. Maybe that was their purpose—to write history. A calm, yet ironic smile spread across his lips as a new wave of energy pulsed through him. Their hopes were grim, but it was hope nonetheless. Once Hanbei was on his feet, Motonari pushed himself to move as quickly as possible with the younger man’s wrist in his grip. They couldn’t remain still or else their time was done. They had to ignore their pain and fatigue and had to keep moving.