The sun was at its highest point in the sky as Juan Castle was in Mitsuko's sight. She couldn't wait to get in the fray of things and get the adrenaline pumping through her veins again. As they get closer they notice that a small amount of troops are in front of the gates. Mitsuko was confused by this.
'I would've thought they would stay cooped up in their castle rather than face us in the field...it must be an honour thing.' She concluded to herself as she pumps herself up. As they get close they saw that they started to march towards them. Zhang Liao recognising this ordered the small force to quicken their pace towards the castle. A lone man dressed in mainly blue robes while on horseback aswell as a few others who seem to be acting as his bodyguards. When the gap between the two sides were short enough both leaders gave the signal to charge at each other.
A couple of the horseback soldiers decided to charge near the flanks trying to get a few kills before the armies clash. One made her way towards Mitsuko with the intention of picking her up, thinking of her as an easy kill especially since she's on the very left of the force. As the horse gallops closer to Mitsuko the soldier grasps his spear tightly as he readies his thrust. When she was in range he thrusts his spear at her as hard as he could. Mitsuko raised her scythe high calmly and struck down and made her body go with her momentum making her body bend forward. The thrust of the spear narrowly misses and the scythe makes contact with the right side of his neck. He didn't even realise what had happened until a second later as he fell off from his horse lying on the ground near the charging soldiers. He grasped his wound to try and stop it from pouring out and attempted to crawl away. Mitsuko saw this and walked to him, planted her foot on his back and cleanly decapitated him. She smirks as she looks over her first kill of the day and looks forward to the small force that are just about to make contact with each other. Mitsuko decided to sprint there to get to the fight as fast as she could.
The frontline soldiers started combat with each other, the look of many determined faces trying to kill their opposition while trying to survive and return home for their families. Zhang Liao Charged forward headfirst wiping out several men in the initial strike and continues his onslaught as he effortlessly takes out any enemy soldiers with each of his swings of his axes. As soldiers started fighting Mitsuko picks a couple of as she sprinted into the fray, using her scythe to cut their exposed necks as she runs past them. A few soldiers that were not in combat started to attack Mitsuko. She smirked as a few were lunging forward at her. She did a massive swing taking out a few of the enemy. As they crashed to the ground she saw even more charging towards her. She started to take them out one by one with her scythe as they came to her. Each swing of her scythe had a lot strength behind them. With the first one lunging towards her with his sword held high she drops her scythe diagonally attacking his neck. She started to realise that she had been targeting them since they normally leave it exposed and the easiest way to make them fresh corpses on the battlefield.
One enemy soldier charged her with his spear clenched tightly, she sidesteps to the left and strikes the right side of his neck making him fall to the ground. She swings at another one and slices his cheeks, cleaving through one and going through his open mouth to cut the other one open. The momentum makes him fall face down. She puts her boot on his back and attempted to strike him. However an enemy warrior uses his sword to block the attack while another attempts to lunge in with his spear. Mitsuko lets go of her scythe with her left hand and unsheathes her hidden sword slashing the soldier blocking her scythe in the process at his gut. She kicks him away and strikes with her scythe in a downwards diagonal angle to the charging soldier piercing the side of his skull and tearing out some of the flesh. His spear was too low to make any impact as he dropped at Mitsuko's feet. She returned her attention to the man beneath her and used her sword to strike his skull. When she retracted she noticed something on one of the sides of the blade. She took a closer look and noticed a peculiar pattern on the sword she didn't see before. She wondered why that was when all of a sudden she saw another soldier about to attack her, she blocks it with her sword and kicks him away and slashes his neck with her scythe. She shook her head realising that this wasn't the best time to wonder what the hell that mark was on her sword.
She continued her onslaught of the enemy soldiers and with the help of the other officers Lu Bu's forces successfully made the enemy retreat back to the castle however they knew that this wasn't the end. Zhang Liao gave the order to pursue them and so they did. Even though Mitsuko had a hair fair amount of kills on her she still wasn't completely satisfied. She wanted more, she wanted more of the enemy to be slain, she wanted more blood to be spilt on the battlefield. She licks her lips as she joined in the pursuit of the enemy forces. The man in the robes called for the gates to be opened, slowly the gates started to open however he saw the pursuing forces and fear was present in his face he just wanted to get inside the walls where it was safe. He didn't think they would put up this much of a fight. The gates opened all the way and he was the first one to enter the castle before the pouring of the remainder of his troops.
'Close the gates!' He shouts out loud so that the gatekeepers could hear him however the gate refused to close.
'Hey didn't you hear me I said close the gates if you don't we'll all die!' He shouts again, still the gates refuse to shut. He could see the army getting closer and closer to the castle. Fearing for his life the prefect fearing for his life shouts to the gatekeepers to shut the gate and afterwards ordered his men to hold position while he attempts to get reinforcements when in reality he was just going to flee. The horse gallops as fast it can to the other side of the castle where another set of gates awaits him. He orders the gate to be opened however no response. He orders the gatekeepers to open the gates again however again no response. Fearing for his life he tries to hide somewhere in the barracks and hope for the best instead since the gatekeepers have betrayed them. Chances are they would kill him if he goes to face them face to face.
Zhang Liao led the charge through the gates as the backlines of the enemy forces retreat further into the castle fearing for their lives with a few dropping their weapons in the process. As a result the frontlines of the force were quickly demolished as Lu Bu's forces entered the castle with a lot of men still available. As the men ran flood the castle Zhang Liao and the rest of the officers including Mitsuko stand in the gateway.
'Well that's the castle under our control then, I've got to say that was a lot easier than I thought it was.' Mitsuko states as she sheathes her sword and puts her hands at the back of her head while still grasping on to her scythe and leaning next to the wall.
'Disappointed?' Zang Ba inquires while Mitsuko just smirks in response.
'Maybe a little they didn't really pose much of a challenge to our forces.'
'Don't forget we're expecting reinforcements in due time we need to clean out the enemy forces in the castle and ambush the reinforcements as they enter the castle.' Zhang Liao interjected.
'Maybe but they won't be here for a good while so we'll have plenty of time to clean up.' Mitsuko replies.
'Even so it's best if the entire castle is in our control, we should help the troops.'
'Fair enough I suppose but what if they surrender?' She questions as she didn't want to do anything without being ordered to in case she would get scolded.
'Give them a warrior's death it's the least we can do for them.' Mitsuko smiles as he said that and licks her top lip as she stops leaning on the wall and started to casually stroll further in the castle.
'Well in that case we better get going they're not going to give themselves an "honourable death" are they?' Mitsuko states as the rest of the officers agreed and started to join the main forces. They all take different streets as they march they're way towards the other side. Mitsuko starts to think to herself about the pattern on her sword. It could very well just be a pattern that she's just over thinking however it felt like it was important for a reason she couldn't explain. She'd have to ask Dodomeki to see if the pattern is important or is it simply her imagination he should be able to give her a direct answer about that at least. She hears loud and quick footsteps coming from behind her. Since she's not hearing them say her name she assumed it must be an enemy. She waits until the footsteps were close enough and swung her scythe as hard as she could a she turns her body to give her some momentum. The crescent blade penetrates the skull and pins it against the wall of one of the buildings. Mitsuko sighs a breath of relief when she finds it's just another enemy she just killed not one of their own, she doesn't need to spin a story about it.
Looking at the latest corpse she created she realised how she wasn't squeamish in the slightest in creating them. She remembered the first date she had with Akane in her own time, for some reason she decided to book tickets for a gory horror film she couldn't remember the title of. She only remembered a few scenes since most of the time she clutched Akane's arm for most of it as she realised that was part of her nefarious plan. She chuckles to herself as she no longer finds those rather disturbing scenes no longer disturbing. She smiled for a second nostalgically remembering only a few moments of pleasure she experienced in her own time. However she quickly shook her head while mentally yelling at herself.
'Damnit Mitsuko just forget about those times and her and just move on already! Just focus on your situation at this moment dumbass!'
She realises that her scythe is still stuck in the damn wall and she just been daydreaming like an idiot this entire time. She looks at the corpse one last time, noticing the dangling arms at the sword at its feet. Blood pours out from the hole she created in his skull while also being drooled out from his mouth creating a puddle of blood underneath the head. She goes to the right of the corpse, put her right leg on the wall, placed her left hand on the polearm below the crescent blade while her right was on top of it and pulled with all of her might. She tried continuously for a minute before trying to wriggle out as she pulls it with less strength in an attempt to dislodge the scythe. After a couple of minutes she eventually dislodged the scythe from the wall, the momentum made her fall over backwards as the scythe laid on top of her. The body slumped to the ground face first. She stood up and dusted herself and examines her scythe to see how bad the damage her blade had sustained. To her surprise it hasn't sustained any.
'Wow these people must have some good steel to forge if that didn't even do as much as a chip to it.' She thought to herself as a soldier of Lu Bu ran towards her. He takes a knee and bows respectfully to her.
'My lady we found a small detachment of enemy forces hiding in the barracks and have surrendered to us.' He states leaving Mitsuko rather confused its not like she's the one in charge of their small force. He should really go to Zhang Liao she thinks to herself however maybe she's the closest one he could find, after all the castle was pretty large. Not as large as say Luo Yang or Chang An but it was still nothing to sneeze at.
'That was rather quick of them, where are they now?' She questions.
'They're being lined up outside the barracks as we speak my lady. I'll take you there right away.' He said as he stands up and starts running with Mitsuko closely following behind him. A few minutes later she arrives at the barracks with a bunch of enemy soldiers kneeling with their heads down to the ground surrounded by Lu Bu's soldiers. She sees Zang Ba also standing over them who turns to see her.
'Ahh Mitsuko so you got here aswell have you?'
'Of course. So how many are here then?'
'Around one hundred or so. Lord Zhang Liao and Lord Cao Xing eliminated the rest these are all that's left although their leader the prefect in charge of the castle has yet to be found.' He explains.
'I see...oh well it's not like he can do anything anyway. It's a shame though.'
'What is?' He inquires.
'Some of these actually look capable and we're not exactly in abundance of soldiers are we? Oh well if Zhang Liao wants them all dead then there's nothing I can do about it can I?' Zang Ba begins to laugh.
'Haha if that's the case you should try speaking to him. I'm sure he'll listen to your advice.' Mitsuko was slightly taken aback by this.
'What are you mad? He's the one in charge, nothing I can say will sway his mind. Either way it's not like it's a bad decision anyway so we might as well get this over with.' As those two were conversing the prefect in charge heard the commotion and thought this would be the best chance he got to escape. He opens the door very slowly and attempted to pussyfoot his way to the other side of the castle. The gatekeepers keeping the gate closed may not expect him now. If he can quickly kill them he might just escape with his life he thought to himself. An unexpected gust of wind swept through the castle and slams the door shut gaining Mitsuko's attention. She sees the prefect with a look of fear in his face before sprinting as fast as he could.
'Found our leader! Someone take him down!' She orders as she herself starts sprinting followed closely by Zang Ba and a few soldiers. A minute later the prefect starts slowing down and Zang Ba overtakes Mitsuko and throws his glaive as hard as he could. The prefect ran as fast as he could before the glaive pierces his ankle making him drop to the ground, incapable of standing on his own feet, causing him agonising pain. The all spring to the incapacitated prefect and Zang Ba removes the glaive making him yell even more loudly.
'Wow nice shot. Didn't think you were going to make that.' Mitsuko congratulated as she was genuinely impressed.
'Thanks I knew I would though.' Zang Ba states with confidence.
'Huh uh sure ok, well we got the last one. Good work everyone, lets take him to the rest of the soldiers and execute them in front of his eyes then do the same to him.' She smiles sadistically as two soldiers nod in response and drag him by the arms while he attempts to escape but to no avail and screams curses at all of them.
'Well looks like the castle will now officially belong to us now.' Mitsuko states as Zang Ba nods.
'Indeed. Still there is the matter of the reinforcements that are coming our way.'
'Yeah but if we play our cards right they'll be easy to deal with.'
'Cards?' Zang Ba inquired making Mitsuko pause for a moment.
'They haven't invented cards yet!?...Damnit c'mon Mitsuko think what other sport do Chinese people play.'
'I meant our go pieces...cards is my pet name for them you can say.' She hesitantly replies as Zang Ba laughs heartily.
'I didn't know you play go. Perhaps when all this is over we should play a game.'
'Yeah sure...in any event we should report to Zhang Liao and see how he wants to position this ambush.' Mitsuko states as she starts strolling around the castle followed closely by Zang Ba.