It was chaos, complete and absolute chaos around all of them by the time they made it inside the Blackstone castle. Catapults fired, swords clashed against metal and men fell around them, either dead or dying but none of that mattered to the combatants around; they were walked over all the same, no matter who they were.
The Daimyo's heart sunk in her chest. This was the battle that would determine the fate of all of the others in the land, and if they don't end this quickly, the end results could very well spell the fall of all of the factions.
"Ayu - "Takafumi's katana was bloodied, although the Orochi himself was unharmed; the Daimyo cutting off his next words with a command.
"Go, find Apollyon and put an end to her madness, we can hold down this part of the field."
"But - "
There is no other that is more fitting, or more capable than you.
Those words were unspoken, as she placed a hand on his shoulder. "You are the Emperor's champion, the best of the Dawn Empire, go." For a brief moment, their eyes met beneath the shadows of their kabuto: her gaze steeling as she repeated her last word.
"Go."
Takafumi almost looked as though he wanted to protest, before he nodded and dashed off, his katana a whirlwind through the bodies of the Knights of the Blackstone Legion, sweeping through them with no effort at all. Ayu found herself smiling beneath her menpo (mask): Apollyon was skilled in battle, but that does not mean she had what it takes to face off the best and proudest of the samurai.
"Now to deal with the rest of you."
A knight had rushed at her, his longsword an imposing sight in the night as moonlight glinted off of the massive blade. The kensei shifted into a defensive stance, well aware of her surrounding although hyperfocused on the armored man in front of her. The Knights were well equipped, but slow in terms of speed -
His blade met hers with a shower of sparks and vibrations that shook both of her arms. Ayu's lips thinned into a line beneath her mask; realization setting in. This was not just a regular soldier, but a warden, a skilled user of the longsword. One could almost say they were the reflection of the Kensei among the ranks Apollyon had gathered around her.
Expertly twisting her wrists, the Daimyo had not flinched when the blade sliced into the man's forearm, cutting through metal as though they were nothing more than wet rice paper. Whatever the knight had uttered behind his helmet was muffled, even though she was certain it was a cry of meshed anger and hatred in their language.
The warden's next blow proved it, the pommel of his sword slamming into her gut with enough strength to knock the air right out of her with a gasp; staggering several steps.
But the warden's fortune had not lasted long -
Blood doused her nose and eyes, spraying from the stump that was his neck with the force of a torrential fountain. His head virtually flew off, while his body fell to its knees with a heavy thud, armor jingling as he finally fell.
It was nothing more than just a bother, Ayu wiping the blood from her face with the back of one hand. Even before she saw who did this, she knew who it was: Momiji.
The Nobushi met her gaze with a nod: "I hope you are unhurt, tono-sama?"
"I'm alright."Ayu suppressed the wince as pain rocketed up her spine. The area where he struck her would likely bruise, and judging from the lack of a sting in this, she managed to avoid a broken rib. "Let's regroup with the others."
Finding Okuma was easy, seeing the Shoguki left a definite trail of bodies behind him after crushing them with his tetsubo. Swinging around her nodachi made Ayu temporarily forget the bruising pain in her side: "Okuma!" The soldiers around her fell just as easily as they had before, their wooden shields proving to be nothing to the might of the blade wielded by a Kensei.
Okuma only spared her one look, but that was enough for Ayu to be certain he was smiling under his oni - like mask. "Glad to see that you are still in one piece, tono!"
Even in the chaos of battle, Ayu had to smile. Her companions were skilled, skilled and loyal and almost like the family she had been deprived of by the corrupt when she lived in the Imperial City: "Same to you, my large friend!" It almost felt like they were not fighting for their existence, or perhaps that was just her, being desensitized to the violence that currently raged everywhere, to the mountains of guts and dismembered bodies after so many years.
Slamming the hilt of her nodachi into the forehead of a knight rushing at her, she only watched him long enough to see the blade of Momiji's naginata protruded from his chest before she turned to her next opponent.
He was a huge man, a Lawbringer, if that was the correct term. But that was what she had been trained for, was it not? A good challenge.