The first ambush party almost made their way to their destination, marching through the forest before hearing Gyuki's victorious roar. They look back and tremble at the ferocity wondering what made that sound.
'Wh-what was that?'
'It sounded like a monster!'
Chatter started to run among the party as they started to tremble over the possibilities of what that was and what will happen to them. All of a sudden their leader silenced them.
'Hey quiet down! If we make too much of a ruckus they'll catch onto us. Besides we're well away from whatever that is, it won't come after us. Now come on we're almost at our destination.'
'Wh-what makes you so sure?' one his soldiers questions clearly still frightened. He looks back at him coldly.
'Call it a hunch, now lets get a move on.' He ordered. His soldiers turned silent and did what they were told however their fear was still very much within them. They were marching through the forest for a while and a lack of any confrontation made sure they calmed down at least a little bit. Unbeknownst to them however this forest had its own dangers they were not aware of. Up above in the branches Dodomeki lurked over the ambush party ready to strike at any moment, jumping very lightly from branch to branch. He smirks underneath his helmet as he made his first move. The furthest soldier behind them was lagging behind and after checking that no one was watching. Dodomeki quickly lifted the soldier up and covered his mouth to make him quiet as possible. He made a small muffled scream before being quickly silenced by striking the side of his neck.
'Huh? Hey guys...where's Ping?' One of the soldiers questions as he turns around to see no one else. The rest of the soldiers look behind to see nothing, no sign of him anywhere.
'Hey Ping, where are you?' One of the warriors yell which echo throughout the forest.
'Quiet! Do you want the enemy to know we're here!? Forget about him, he probably just deserted us like a coward. He'll suffer the consequences soon enough. Now lets move.' He orders. Soon after another warrior got abducted, this time he let out a gasp before being silenced. His bow slid down from his arm and lands on a bundle of leaves making a loud enough sound for the few members of the party close to him to look behind them. One investigates and finds his bow.
'Xue's disappeared!' He declares which even has the leader look back in shock.
'What?' he questioned as the rest of the party gathered together.
'I don't know where he went but I found his bow...we should probably turn back.'
'No chance!' The leader shot down that idea.
'We need to keep moving like our strategist ordered us to. If we let that monster live after this battle he'll be a thorn in our lords side for much longer.'
'But-'
'But nothing! Look the faster we reach our destination, the faster we can leave this accursed forest.' Just then Dodomeki stretches his right arm and grabs a warrior by the back of his collar on his clothes and pulls him up high in the trees. Making his presence purposefully known. The soldier screamed as he got dragged up, getting the attention of the rest of the party.
'Everyone fire!' The leader orders. The band of warriors readied their bows and fire at the specific spot where he was abducted as quickly as they could. After a volley of arrows was released a body dropped to the ground. A few soldiers investigate the body however they start to tremble as they realise it was their own. They all start to tremble with fear, their legs shaky and their foreheads start to get drenched in sweat. Suddenly Dodomeki abducts another soldier up by his face. Making the rest of the soldiers start to flee anywhere they can as long as they're away from whatever that was.
The leader starts to demand they stay put as his soldiers sprint past him in fear. He orders them to come back before Dodomeki drops a corpse with his throat slit right in front of him. Fear begins to consume him as he feels the same aura of dread that his soldiers felt. He begins to flee aswell as Dodomeki smirks under his helmet. He began to have some fun and pick them off one by one. He jumps from branch to branch effortlessly as he picks his next targets. Some He simply abducts in the leaves of the trees and simply slice their throat and drop them. Other targets he pounces on them and quickly striking their numerous body numerous times and leaving them to bleed out. He moved too fast for them to flee but they tried anyway to no avail. Soon only the leader and one of his subordinates was left. They run as fast as they can before Dodomeki jumps down from the trees and lands in front of them looking menacing. He stands up straight and opens his golden glowing eye, staring at their eyes with a soul piercing gaze.
'T-take him! He's all yours!' He screams as he grabs the soldier next to him and throws him to Dodomeki making him crash to the ground. The leader runs away in the opposite direction. The warrior looks up at Dodomeki's intimidating presence and quickly grovelled back to a tree as he finds himself unable to move. Dodomeki smirks as he took a couple of steps closer. The soldier stands up as fast as he can and flees as far away as he could. Seconds later Dodomeki strikes from above. He lands on him making his right foot go through his stomach and causing him to fall to the ground. He tried to scream out in agony however he could only let out small gasps before Dodomeki decides to finish him off by stomping on his skull with his other foot. Crushing it beneath his heel.
The one in charge of the ambush party was all that's left. He looks around frantically to try and find an exit of the forest however all he can see is trees. He turns around and bumps into Dodomeki who didn't even flinch. The leader falls backwards and crawls away from Dodomeki as slowly walks towards him. The leader backs into a tree. Dodomeki chuckles as he sees his frantic face looking around, hoping for reinforcements or help of some kind. A magical escape gate or something. Nothing came. He realised that this could be his last few minutes on this earth as he struggles to stand up, his legs still shaky from fear. However he draws his sword and looks at this...this demon. He closes his eyes and lunges forward, he attempts to strike Dodomeki from overhead. Dodomeki sidesteps and trips him up using one of his legs.
The leader crashes to the ground and drops his sword. He attempts to crawl towards it. However Dodomeki walks quickly and kicks it away as he reaches for the hilt. Dodomeki grabs him by the throat with his left arm and proceeds to choke him. He starts to thrash his legs about with both of his arms clutching Dodomeki's.
'W-wait...please! I'll give you...GHURK anything you want...just...let me...go.' He manages to whisper. Dodomeki ponders his request for a moment before grinning.
'Well...there is one thing I want from you if you want me to let go that badly.'
'Y-yes name it...and its...yo-yours.' He manages to whisper. Dodomeki lets go, the leader lands on his knees painfully before he managed to stand up again.
'Th-thank you. Now I'll keep my end of the bargain whatever you want I'll give it.' He expressed his gratitude before not a moment later Dodomeki gives him a hook punch knocking him down to the ground again. Dodomeki looms over him before he grabs his head and dragged him up to his knees.
'That's good...because I want your head!' Dodomeki declares as his fingers latch on to his upper jaw of his mouth as he protests. With a massive amount of strength Dodomeki pulled with one hand while keeping the other on his head steady. He screamed in agony before Dodomeki finally pulls off his skull. The body drops to the ground with blood spurting out the open wound. Dodomeki let out a satisfied huff before discarding the skull like it was worth nothing and retreated from the forest, leaving the fresh corpses to decay.
Back at Dingtao castle thanks the efforts of LingQi and Mitsuko the ambush at the castle was foiled.
'Damnit they're stronger than I expected...everyone fall back!' The officer in charge ordered leading to the retreat of their forces. Lu Bu's forces successfully defended Dingtao castle with their soldiers cheering loudly.
'Well that worked out better than expected I'd say.' Pang Tong announced as he walks up to the duo.
'I'm surprised you managed to anticipate the ambush. How did you know they would launch a surprise attack after the main force left?' Mitsuko questioned.
'Hehe it would be what I would do, and I suspected Cao Cao has a talented strategist working for him.' Pang Tong wanted to explain more about how Lu Bu was too predictable however due to LingQi's presence he was hesitant to do so. He'd prefer a lack of confrontation for a simple misunderstanding especially with Mitsuko present.
'Well either way we should probably get a move on to meet the main army otherwise...wait a minute what's that?' Pang Tong walked closer to the castle gates and saw Juye castle engulfed with fierce flames.
'Oh that's not good.' Pang Tong bluntly states however he was not surprised that something like this would happen. The rest of the garrison forces walk to the gates aswell and see the castle slowly being reduced to ashes as the fire slowly devours the wooden structure.
'Father...' Ling Qi whispers to herself concerned about her fathers safety. She didn't expect to have Mitsuko attempt to console her as places a hand on her shoulder.
'Hey don't worry I'm sure he's fine after all he's the toughest warrior out there.' Mitsuko put on a comforting smile that helped Ling Qi calm herself just a little bit.
'Mitsuko...'
She was interrupted by a frantic soldier sprinting towards the castle from the main camp.
'M-my lady the main camp...its its...' The soldier was speaking too fast to make much sense as he kneels in front of LingQi.
'Calm down soldier what's wrong?' LingQi Kneels down to meet him at his level. She felt a need to appear strong even if she herself was fearful for the worst regarding her father.
'The main camp...its fallen! We didn't see them coming at all. We were not prepared for them.' All the soldiers grew wide eyed as they began to feel terrified, even Mitsuko was taken aback by this. Pang Tong simply sighed in response.
'Well in that case there's not much else we can do. We should probably start to retreat as soon as possible. Yan province is lost.'
'Wait can't we just get regroup at Puyang?' Mitsuko enquired.
'No good, the only way to get there is through the main camp. And as a result the enemy will more than likely make a pincer attack blocking any chance of escape and we'll be slaughtered. The only way we can go given our position is past the rear gates of the castle to the path of xu province which is under the protection of lord Liu Bei.' Pang Tong explains, though Mitsuko remains adamant trying to find a solution to her situation.
'But there has to be something else we can do though, strategic ambushes or something.'
'Without supplies from the main camp the troops will starve and morale will drop significantly. Look around you, you can see the affect the loss of the main camp is having already.' Mitsuko looks around to see the terrified looks of the soldier's faces. Whether she wanted to admit it or not she can't deny these men didn't want to fight at all which meant they would more than likely die if they met the enemy.
'A builder can't build a house if he doesn't have the right tools. Sometimes you just have to retreat and fight another day. This is unfortunately one of those times for us.' Pang Tong continued. Mitsuko tightens the grip of her weapons and grits her teeth. She starts feeling that dreaded feeling again she experienced what seemed to be a lifetime ago. That feeling of weakness...helplessness. The feeling of no matter how much you may try you can't change anything. It brought her back to that fateful morning on that school day when this feeling hit her like a truck. Her demonic eyes change to an oxford blue with tears threatening to escape her eyes as she involuntarily starts to picture the scene again. Thankfully she didn't get very far as Lu Bu rode to the front gates with his army closely behind him seconds later. Her eye colours changed to their regular colours. LingQi let out a sigh of relief as she saw her father was unharmed. Though he looked severely frustrated the closer he rode in the castle.
He pulls the reins on his glorious crimson red steed which forcefully makes it stop as he approaches Wu Zi.
'You! We're making our retreat to Xu province for now, where are the gates!?' Lu Bu demanded to know which made the garrison force take a step back out of fear that he will smite any one of them including Wu Zi himself.
'Near the back of the castle I'll lead you to them immediately my lord.' Wu Zi offered in which Lu Bu huffed in response rather angrily as he made red hair walk with him. No one could tell if it was because of his disappointment in his army or just frustration over the way Cao Cao made him look like a fool. The rest of the army started to retreat into the castle and followed their lord. Murmurs of discontent could be heard throughout the army accompanied by sad miserable faces. Some officers like Zhang Liao were determined to do better next time, some were furious at this defeat and some were disappointed like Chen Gong who would've thought Lu Bu would listen to his strategies or at least take them into consideration.
'Well if we don't join along we'll be left behind at the mercy of Cao Cao. Something I'd prefer not to happen to us.' He told Mitsuko and LingQi.
'Cao Cao will pay for humiliating us!' LingQi vows a she looks back outside the castles front gates before starts to walk away to join them. Mitsuko stood there for a few seconds longer as she tightens her grip of her scythe one last time before relaxing it and releasing a sigh. She turns around and attempted to catch up to LingQi and Pang Tong. They reach the rear gates and start on the path to Xu province.
'Cao Cao would have most likely place an ambush up ahead on the higher ground. I don't like this but we will have to punch through to reach safety.' Chen gong stated sadly. Lu Bu scoffed in response and started speeding on ahead signalling the rest of the army to run aswell. When they followed the path to the high ground however everyone especially Chen Gong were suspicious of an enemy ambush...but it never came. They were soon surrounded by forests on both flanks. Everyone was silent, anticipating an ambush getting ready...but it never came.
'That's odd...i wonder what they're waiting for...' Chen Gong whispered to himself.
'Ha! I see Cao Cao didn't expect us to go to Xu Province after all, it seems even he cannot see everything!' Lu Bu bellows out loud which gives his troops a small morale buff.
Eventually they reached the part of the path where Gyuki went on his rampage on the second ambush party, everyone stopped momentarily in awe of this destruction. Whispers and rumors of what caused this destruction went throughout the entire army. Pang Tong couldn't help but chuckle to himself which didn't go unnoticed by LingQi.
'We're wasting time! Let's go the faster we go to Xu Province the faster we can regroup and discuss our next battle!' Lu Bu states as he starts to move. The army started to follow closely.
'Cao Cao...one day this entire land will be mine!' He declares as he raises his halberd as high as he could. For some reason she couldn't explain Mitsuko found that amusing and thought something she didn't expect though it still felt...natural to her.
'Is that so? We'll see about that...my lord.' Mitsuko's pupils briefly turned reptilian with the slit shaped pupils before blinking again and changed back.