You know what, I'm going to do a small marathon of working on this to at the very least clear Nanman. Heck, I want to get to Fan but that's taking long enough...maybe I could kill of Fu Xi...nah. Too easy. And it's weird thinking of ways to kill myself...wouldn't that count as suicide?

Whilst I'm dealing with the philosophical issues here's the next chapter... walks off talking to self about the issue

oh, and before I go, apparently putting * around sections bolds them. Yeah, thanks for that Open office. Didn't tell me about that update now did you?

Disclaimer: Dynasty Warriors is owned by Koei and Omega force. The legend of the three kingdoms is technically owned by history. I own nothing except the characters made by myself with a section of historical basis. (Well, Fu Xi, Nu Wa, historical basis, trololol) Su Zhi is owned by Lorze the Brooks in her story, The Warrior of Art (Yeah, hard to believe that it's been 6 odd years since I first read that story)

(last thing I swear) and if you want to see more Fu Xi goodness, He has a role in The Warrior of Art. So go read it.


Chapter 53:

All Fired Up

Considering all the rain, it didn't really dampen our spirits.

We just kept on going, no matter the conditions, despite slipping and such.

The things was, the enemy were locals.

They were used to this...and would be able to plan accordingly...

and considering we had lost the bridge, it would be our spirits that would carry us.

We made it back to the southern Garrison, seeing the Wu soldiers fortifying it once more, despite the now ruined walls. I looked around, seeing Lu Xun talking to Shang Xiang about the situation, the pair discussion with a table holding the map between them.

"We know the enemy is massed over here" Xun spoke, pointing to a section to the east. "And thanks to the Detachment sent from Shu, we've secured here and here" What detachment? Nu brought only herself. Guess Liu Bei sent more then we saw

"So now we just need a bit of help from Brother to force them out" Shang Xiang replied, smiling.

"Hate to be the bearer of bad news" I told them, walking up to the table, Nu at my side. "The Bridge is out. Nanman Engineers took it down, and from the sound of things Quan is under attack" They both looked at me, Shang Xiang shocked as Xun was calm.

"Hmm...this is going to make things difficult" He replied, looking over the table once more and myself and Nu stopped next to it. "Without that supply line, we're going to struggle, especially with the numbers we have"

"What's the plan Xun?" He took his hat off, scratching his head, before answering.

"Alright...we know the enemy are trying to pin us in here" He replaced the hat, now pointing to the base on the map. "If we stay here too long, we're going to be killed by the enemy, and Our Lord is going to be as well" He now pointed either side. "Both sides have enemy soldiers en mass to hold us back, with the enemy main force in the east...which means that our best chance to break through lies in the west" He traced his hand around, tapping at the bases Nu had sent the Shu troops to secure. "If we're lucky, they will still be fighting, and able to resupply us as we go" He looked between us, a fire now burning in his eyes as he hit his stride. I could just see Lu Meng in him as he dealt with this, The warrior himself walking up from behind me, his halberd over his shoulder. "Lady Nu Wa, Lord Lu Meng, Lord Fu Xi, I would ask you to hold the line here whilst myself and Lady Shang Xiang try to fight our way through the enemy to link back up with the main force. With any luck, we should be able to arrive at the same time as Lord Gan Ning and Lord Ling Tong"

"Something to add to the mix Lu Xun. Su Zhi is over the bank in the main camp" I told him. He nodded, smiling.

"That will make things easier. At the very least Lady Su will buy us more time, if not keep Our Lord safe along with Lord Zhou Tai" If there's anything that that pair will do, they will be able to keep Quan safe...if anything I feel sorry for the Nanman barbarians. "We need to move as fast as we can. This base is going to come under attack soon, and we need to be out before they get within range."

"Range of what?" Nu asked. Xun just walked away, leaving her question unanswered. Saying that the answer was kinda obvious. Archers, spear throwers, that sort of thing. It was kinda obvious Nu. Shang Xiang walked up to me, giving me a quick kiss on the cheek before patting me on the shoulder.

"I'll see you on the other side...fates willing" She told me, grabbing her chakam.

"Fates willing we'll be home before the month's out" I told her, smiling as she ran off.

"Soldiers! We go! Men of the Xun and Xiang Battalions, follow us. the rest, hold the line here as long as you can" Sounds simple enough. Since when were we battalions by the way? Screw it, sounds better then 'the Xun squad' The soldiers under the command of the pair started leaving to follow Shang Xiang and Xun, with myself, Meng and Nu looking over the map once more.

"He's good Lu Meng" I told him, smiling as I gave him a look out my eye corner.

"He will be the flame that guides Wu during it's darkest hours I feel" Nu continued. Lu Meng looked between us, lowering his halberd before leaning over the table.

"That's his ability at work...Boy's as bright as anyone else at Wu, even rivaling Lord Zhuge Liang" Lu Meng replied, the rest of the soldiers now readying up. "He'll be ready...for if..." I raised an eyebrow as Meng quickly coughed away the subject.

"Ok...here's the plan" He pointed at the base we were holding. "We know they are coming. Our scouts report a Female Barbarian leading their ranks using throwing knives and a bladed boomerang" Throwing knives? Sounds oddly familiar. "Our best bet is to get our archers on the walls and ready to meet the charge. The weapons in this base may be primitive" He tells the people from the 21st century...not that he's know. "But usable...It would be better if our archers could make use of the locals weapons for the sake of ammunition...otherwise...we should be on the lookout for anything our of place. The enemy know the terrain like the back of their hands"

I nodded to this, leaning back away from the table as Nu walked off. Meng gave me a quick nod before running off himself. I looked over the map once more, getting an idea in my head of what we had to deal with. The North was secure at least for us. The terrain to the east was mostly marshy which would slow anyone down if they charged through it. That would buy us time for the archers to cut them down at range. The west was solid ground, so Xun and company wouldn't be hindered when on the move. Only thing that'll slow them down would be the enemy, and they wouldn't do that much.

We took around 10 minutes to quickly muster up our lines. Nu had decided to go with the archers on the walls, Meng and myself on the outside with the infantry. The plan was to let them charge at us, when Nu would launch a fire arrow behind them, severing the lines in two for a short period, hopefully long enough for us to cull the first half of the assault. Meng had set the fire powder (as I call it. He mentioned it's real name but I didn't quite catch it) down himself, so it was going to light, no matter where Nu hit or how long it took the enemy to get here. And then, if all else failed, I could just run at it and do it myself.

"Lord Fu Xi" Lu Meng called out to me, riding up beside me on his bay horse, halberd over his shoulder. I put my greatsword into the sodden earth, leaning on it as I waited. "How are you dealing with the weather?" I sneezed as he said this, rubbing my nose with my finger.

"It's just like Xia Kou" I told him, half smiling. "Only warmer" Well, it was tropical, what do you expect. Lu Meng shook his head, planting his hand on my shoulder.

"You'll be on the winning side this time" I smiled, turning to him as the rain now finally decided it wanted to turn my hair into a min-waterfall down my face. I shook my head before replying at all, wanting to actually look at him.

"Just hope I'll see it when it actually comes" I joked, Meng laughing slightly at this. "Be honest Meng...what are the chances of Su and Zhou failing?"

"Given the enemy we've faced so far...slim to none" as he said this, I spied a group of enemy soldiers appearing from the mists, each one plodding their way through the mud and undergrowth. I grabbed the hilt of my blade, lifting it up onto my shoulder before sighing.

"Then how about we finish this up quick?" He turned to the walls, raising his halberd to signal the archers, the rest of the infantry readying up for the fight. "The more noise we make here, the better chances are Shang Xiang and Xun will break through"

The enemy started yelling, obviously some war-cry as they charged through, slowly dragging their way through. I grabbed my longsword as well, smiling as I realized how tired they would be. I gave the blade a quick flourish, washing off whatever blood was left on it from it's previous use, breathing to ready myself.

"This is where we make our stand. It's do or die" I spoke, adjusting the angle my greatsword rested at. "We fall here, and the others don't stand a chance" the Nanman barbarians came ever closer, a couple of them getting out of the marshland and now charging at us full pelt, the heavy infantry divisions moving up to guard Lu Meng and myself, shields locked together to keep the enemy back, spearmen behind holding their polearms over their shoulders. What was this, Sparta? Whatever, this was going to be effective at holding them back for a time. "Let's make this count" The Barbarians crossed our line, Lu Meng giving a small chuckle.

"ARCHERS! FIRE!" He yelled, swinging his halberd forward.

I heard the sound of arrows flying behind us, feeling them flying over head and watching the enemy before us shrink in number from the expert marksmanship, floor becoming cluttered by corpses and weapons impaling the ground. I put my longsword into the ground, grabbing my crossbow quickly and firing off a quick bolt, hitting one in the skull before quickly replacing it on my leg and grabbing my sword once more.

The horde was still growing, their cries getting louder and louder as they closed the gap, the holes appearing in their numbers not shirking them from their goals of cutting us down. The front line finally came within reach of us, jumping the last few steps, swinging their axes at the spears to divert them before jumping at the shield wall, their axes now smashing on the heads of the front-line, cutting down our infantry quickly. I turned to Meng, nodding to him before charging forward.

"NU WA!" He yelled as I got closer to the front lines. "FIRE!" I dived forward, slamming the grip of the blade into a Barbarian's side as he went for a swing, saving a spear man from becoming a half the man he is now. The spear man turned, seeing me and the barbarian, slamming the shaft of his spear into the barbarian's chest, causing him to hunch over as I swung the great-sword over my shoulder, cleaving the Nanman soldier's head off, blood gushing around as I moved quickly to recover.

This felt oddly comfortable. As much as the weight of the great sword was difficult to manage at times, I figured, I should be able to make up for it with the speed of the long sword. I spun on the blade, bringing the longsword around to slice through the chest of a soldier in front of me, repositioning the great sword once more over my shoulder as I moved ahead, cutting into a third with some sort of grace, my blade cutting into his shoulder as I got back to my feet.

I felt something heavy hit my greatsword, turning to it and seeing a soldier pinning it down, trying to bring it to cut through my shoulder through sheer weight. I gritted my teeth, attempting to spin my long sword around to cut him off, literally, only to find that a new one had decided to slam the blunt side of his axe against my fist, forcing me to drop the sword, gritting my teeth.

"Fu Xi!" Lu Meng shouted, riding up behind us and cutting through the Nanman soldier behind me, the guy falling to the ground as Meng kept on riding, swinging his halberd down once more to slam the blade upon the skull of the other one. "Don't mess around! Just cut them down!"

I shook my head. What the hell was I thinking? This wasn't the time to...experiment. Maybe it was the weather getting to me, maybe it was me being an ass, maybe it was wanting to show off to Nu. I don't know. I shook my head a second time, grabbing my long sword and swinging the mud off. I put the great sword away, breathing as I grabbed the spear gauntlet once more.

"Get your head back in the game Craig" I said to myself, looking around at the battlefield, seeing Wu soldiers pushing the line. "Now isn't the time to try and be a show off"I clenched my fist at this point, swinging the spear down and flexing my arm. I saw something bright fly over head, impacting the ground just behind the midpoint of the Nanman horde.

The flames caught on, the powder bursting into life as the lines were split. The enemy suddenly looked between the flames and us, panicking, finding that their one advantage was now gone completely. If anything they had developed two massive disadvantages: they were pinned with their backs to the (fire)wall, and they no longer had the numbers advantage against us. Lu Meng rode up alongside me once more, swinging his halberd down.

"Got to give Lady Nu credit, her Marksmanship has improved a lot" He commented, brushing under his nose before the Wu soldiers started to push the enemy back properly. I cracked my neck, sighing.

"I'm getting too old for this" I said to myself, running at the frontline once more, weapons held tight once more.

It was simple from that point. Pretty much a simple mopping up job, cutting down what was left whilst the fires still burnt. Whilst we didn't get off scot free, we managed to do it with minimal casualties. I had to walk Meng back to the walls after we pushed them back. The rest of the horde decided to back off, obviously now intent on taking the fight north.

We had a reprieve. That was all we needed. If they came back, we had managed to buy time, that was really all we had to do. Nu was walking around in the base, sighing every now and then as she put her bow over her shoulder. Meng was flexing his shoulder, obviously stretched from overuse. I was better off, but I knew the spear was starting to see it's shaft on the edge. Something that would need to be replaced when I got back to Wu. Must have been the rain ruining the wood or something...whatever the case, if I wasn't careful I'd be stuck with an overly large stick.

Could always club them.

"Captain, report" Meng spoke, sitting against a wall near the side we had just held ran up to us, doing the salute.

"We've used up all the ammunition the enemy had stored here, so our archers are going to have to fight in the melee now" He replied, Nu sighing once more.

"Your not helping Nu" I told her.

"However...we've received a report that Lady Shang Xiang and Lord Xun have met up with Reinforcing units, Lord Gan Ning and Lord Ling Tong" B-E-A-uiful. That'll be good for us. "we have yet to receive any order to move out however"

"What news of Lord Sun Quan?" I asked him. He turned to me at this point, shaking his head.

"We haven't heard a thing my lord" I sighed at this point, shaking my head. This was great, until we heard something we were pretty much stuck here holding a silent line. Or at least for the moment silent. At least things couldn't really get worse. We had held for now, for all we knew we had a supply line and just didn't know it.

"M-My lords!" one of the archers on the wall called. We all turned to him, seeing him pointing to the outside. "It's...an enemy general!" I raised an eyebrow, Meng jumping to his feet as we all scrambled to look, Nu climbing up the wall quickly as Meng and myself scrambled up the walkway.

It was a soldier...a female soldier. We could all tell that judging on how she was walking. Meng rested his halberd next to him, giving a small chuckle. I looked her over, wondering what on earth this one was thinking. Nu readied her bow, loading a single arrow.

"Wait" Meng told her. Nu and myself turned to him at this point, giving him a raised eyebrow. "Don't fire...Let myself and Lord Fu Xi deal with this" Nu relaxed, lowering her bow and letting the string relax.

"Are you sure Lord Lu Meng?" Nu asked. I was pretty much thinking the same thing. Meng nodded, lifting his halberd onto his shoulder.

"Of Course" was all he replied with, turning to walk back out. I shook my head, shrugging before walking to follow.

"I don't know either...keep an eye out for a signal if I need a quick shot" I told her. She nodded to me, leaning against the edge and watching. Meng you had better know what you are doing. I caught up to him, sighing as we walked out the gate. "Meng...please tell me this is some sort of good idea"

"It's a mix of finding out what they want, showing our strength to Shu and indeed finding out how our Lord is" it was going well...until the second point. Mentally I'm grinding my teeth, knowing how stupid that showing off to Shu is. We're allies not enemies. Do we need to constantly try and outdo one another. But at least he somewhat had his head in the game, knowing that we had to find out what was what and where.

We left the base behind us, Meng only giving it one last look before we both turned to the mysterious woman, looking her over as we approached once more. It was definitely a woman, and definitely a Nanman barbarian. Her hair was long and white, stretching down her neck to midway down her neck. She was tall, at least as tall as Meng was. She had barely any clothing. A leopard skin bra to hold her breasts in (and, without trying to sound like I'm taking notes, they are large) most likely the rest of it's skin covering her thighs with fur boots and arm guards. Other then that, she had three long white feathers in her hair, and a hairband of some kind. That was it for clothing.

Would I be forgiven for calling her an Amazon? I did mentally laugh, thinking that Amazon existed in...what...Vietnam? Who'd a thought the Vietnamese would be Nanman and Amazons. I looked at her once again, seeing a three pronged Boomerang...really? For crying out loud a boomerang in China. You know, I've just learned not to ask questions about these kind of things any more. Hell, we have magic in our blood so boomerangs aren't too far off from that. She turned her head towards us as we approached, putting her boomerang on her shoulder.

"I am Lord Lu Meng of Wu" Meng spoke, lowering his halberd defensively. I readied my hand on my longsword, just in case. "You have been troubling our lines for many a month now, so we have come to put you down" She half chuckled, flipping her boomerang around, showing the blades on two of the three sections.

"I am Zhu Rong, the Daughter of the Goddess of Fire" She proudly replied, giving us a glare from hell. "You trespass on sacred ground to our people. If you want to leave with your lives, I suggest you run now" Lu Meng laughed at this point.

"Really? Well then tell me, if we are doing so badly, how are the Northern lines doing? Surely you'll be winning there as well" Zhu Rong lowered her Boomerang, shaking her head.

"It's only a matter of time-"

"Time until we defeat you" Meng was quick to interrupt. He must have read it as well, the shaking gave her away. "If you think you have us, then why are we still standing here? And why have you come alone to our lines?" You could see in Zhu Rong's eyes that Meng was picking at her weakness.

"Look hot stuff, if you think you have us, then why are you stuck here?" She had a point. I'll give her...thaaaat? That voice is familiar.

"So, you about ready to quit then?" I asked her, holding my hand out in front of Meng. "Or would you rather do what you tried be-"

And that was when it hit me...She wasn't here just to talk. She was here for something else. I paused, turning my head back to the base, seeing Nu looking around. She wouldn't...would she?

"Meng...Get back to the walls" I told him, grabbing my sword and spear. He looked at me with a face that was between confusion and shock.

"But why? It's not like they are-" Meng started, before we heard a cry from the base. We both swung our heads around, seeing Nu swinging the blades of her bow at three Nanman soldiers. "It was a trap?"

"Bait...she wanted the commanders out to disrupt the base as much as possible" I explained, turning back to Zhu Rong.

"You're good, sparky" She told us, smiling. Meng swung between myself and her, debating what to do.

"Meng. Go!" I shouted at him. He gritted his teeth, starting to run towards the walls.

"Not so fast!" Zhu Rong shouted back. She spun around, throwing her boomerang at me, the blades spinning in a vortex of death towards me.

I gulped, diving to the ground quickly, the weapon flying over my head by a hair's length, piece's of my cape being shredded by it. I rolled over, seeing the weapon coming back, not moving whilst it went back to it's owner. I watched the woman catch it expertly, spinning around again as she placed her hand on the only wooden section. I saw a glint as well, blinking before getting up, then hearing a cry of pain from Meng. I threw myself up, seeing him leaning on his halberd, one arm reaching around his back. I didn't have to think long to figure out what had happened, running over to him.

"Meng!" I shouted, putting my arm around him, gritting my teeth as I looked at him.

"I'm fine" He replied, gasping in pain before bringing a blood stained knife around, breathing a bit. "Never saw this one coming" He moaned, lifting himself up and turning to Zhu Rong. "Not only did she manage to draw us out, but she also managed to hit us with a sneak attack" He rubbed the injured section, lowering his halberd so he could take it with both hands. "She's mine"

"No...Leave her for me" I told him, spinning my sword in my hand. "My weapons are better given what she has" Zhu Rong pulled another set of blades, holding them as one would a hand of cards, her boomerang low at her side. "Besides...you need to organize the garrison. Nu needs the help" I let him go, stepping forward, the wind catching my cape and blowing it to one side. I have more then a slight feeling that the cape will be my trump card in this. Meng grunted, I heard his feet turn him to the base.

"Good luck Fu Xi" He told me, running back to our allies.

I cracked my neck, flipping my blade in my hand and pointing the spear towards her, pacing around as she responded, doing the same, both of us walking in a clockwise fashion. I looked her over, trying to figure how she was going to move. She shuffled the knives in her hand, playing around as she tried to distract me with that.

This was going to be fun.

We were all going all out in order to last out here.

We weren't about to let this be our darkest hour, fighting the Nanman barbarians.

It would be humiliating to go out like this, especially in such circumstance.

Now a 'descendent of the Goddess of fire' wanted to take us down, even injuring Meng.

The Goddess was going to have to deal with The Demon.


THERE! Finally. This took like...god, a week's worth of work. (and I don't mean I've been working on this a week. I mean I've been working on this for may as well be a week straight) You have no idea how determined I am to get this battle cleared. Hell, the gap between This and Fan will be easy to do, I already know what I'm going to do for that, and how I'm going to do it, but it's just getting there. Hell, I know what I want to do for this, even with Meng Huo. But it's just getting there.

So, now I've got like...2, 3 chapters left for this battle, with 1 more for a section of filler (if you've been reading Warrior of Art, you know what filler I'm on about...if not, go read it. This is me being subtle.)

Oh, one last thing. don't ask why I'm uploading this at like 2:40 am GMT. I have been so determined to get this thing out that I took a late night working on it. Thankfully I don't have much in the morning to go to.