In the castle resided the loyal soldiers of Liu Bei who were packing up to leave.
'Has our lord already gone?' One officer asked another as he was carrying a box to a cart.
'Yes Lord Liu Bei has already fled along with the peasants. These are the last of the supplies. Once they've retreated, only then we can evacuate the castle of our men.' The other officer replies. The officer who initiated the conversation looks around the castle square, seeing the panic of the soldiers inside the castle as they hurry the evacuation, running all around the place and sighs.
'I never expected Lu Bu to attack us so soon.'
'Neither did we, however he is just merely a beast lashing out at everyone. He even dares to make it seem that our lord betrayed him, the nerve of that man!' He shakes his fist with anger.
'I know what you mean, still though this alliance with Cao Cao must give him at least some pause. Also without the draw bridge down his forces won't be able to infiltrate the castle in time.' All of a sudden the castles east gates open up to reveal a few soldiers sprinting towards the castle. Clearly afraid of their lives. The gates quickly shut behind them as they look around all over trying to find the exit.
The officers come towards one of them and grabs a hold of their shoulders.
'Steady on soldier, steady on. What's going on? Why are you away from your post?' He asks, curious as to why the soldiers seem to be running away from someone…or something.
'Th-the garrison got overrun.' The officers and the soldiers looked at him in total shock. Overrun? How? All of Lu Bu's forces were occupied by the front gates…weren't they?
'How, what happened soldier!?' The other officer demanded to know. The soldier couldn't stop shaking as he relives the experience.
'It was ok at first, we haven't heard anything from the first garrison so we thought everything was fine. All of a sudden the gates were destroyed by flying rocks. The enemy though small were able to eviscerate us! We weren't prepared for them at all, we thought we would have some sort of warning before the serpent arrived!' The soldiers starts to cower.
'The serpent?'
'Hmm I do recall some mention of a woman in Lu Bu's forces known as the serpent. Is that the one you're referring to?'
'Y-yes that very one. Her forces broke down the gates with a catapult, we didn't stand a chance.'
'Wait what about the reinforcements? Cao Cao's flanking cavalry force?'
'I don't know, we heard the sound of horses riding past our garrison before they attacked but that was all we heard, I can only imagine they didn't make it.'
'That's impossible there was no way they could've prepared for the cavalry in time.'
'It doesn't matter! If we stay here we're all going to suffer the same fate.' He yells out, one of the officers punches him in the face, knocking him down to the ground.
'That's enough soldier! You forget what you are, you're a soldier of lord Liu Bei. No matter who our opponent is, we must hold the line. If we do not our lord will surely be captured and slain, along with our dreams of a new world, is that what you want!?' He questioned everyone around him who shake their heads silently.
'Of course not, I know you are all frightened of our situation. But we cannot give up! Lord Liu Bei wouldn't give up on us, so we can't give up on him.' The officer begins to draw attention as several soldiers gather around him as he continued his rather inspiring speech.
'We cannot afford to let the enemy take the castle and pursue our lord. We must hold the enemy line, even if we may fall in battle we will take as many of the enemy as we can! The servants of the chaotic beast will fall and we will keep the dream of a new world alive! That alone gives me enough to strength to fight on. You may escape the castle if you wish. However I will not run away, I will stand and fight the enemy. I will be glad to sacrifice myself for lord-' The officer was interrupted a giant rock flattened him.
The soldiers surrounding the newly formed corpse where only his legs were shown gasped in shock as another one hit a cart with supplies. Panic began to spread as the soldiers wonder what they're supposed to do.
'The gates won't hold, lets get out of-WUAGH!' Soldiers that were pushing against the gate trying to keep it closed were flung away as a boulder crashed through the gates letting Mitsuko's
'Th-the enemy. The enemy have breached the gate!' Panic ensued as the soldiers arrived and began to kill the enemy soldiers and claim their supplies. Liu Bei's forces were too scattered to organise an effective defence against the attack. As a result the soldiers were picked off as the Mitsuko's soldiers kept disciplined not letting her words fall on deaf ears. Mitsuko walks through the gate and sees the carnage that her forces are causing throughout the enemy castle and laughs softly.
'Hehe well what a sight, they seem to never have expected us.' Pang Tong chuckled behind her.
'Even so, I imagined there'd be more soldiers here.' Mitsuko noticed the lack of the enemy presence.
'It seems as though the majority of the army has already retreated letting us take the castle. It could be that they never expected an attack from our forces so quickly. Which may explain why the garrisons were so ill defended' Pang Tong theorised.
'Really? I would've thought they would've been more prepared, I mean Lu Bu isn't really a man to take something like this lying down.' Pang Tong chuckles at this.
'They should've I agree, but alas I think they may have been pre-occupied by other things. All the easier for us to strike through so its not the worst thing to happen.'
'Indeed. Well in any event we'll need to lower the drawbridge to let the rest of the allies in the castle. Please don't get it into trouble down here.' Mitsuko orders with concern present in her voice, she knew she couldn't afford to lose Pang Tong here and now. He simply chuckled at this.
'Do not worry our forces will handle the enemy down here, or what's left of it.' Mitsuko nods and makes her way to the top of the wall. An enemy soldier charges at Pang Tong seeing an opening. He yelled out a battlecry. As he got in range to attack strike him in the back, Pang Tong without moving smacked him in the face with his large fan as he raises it upright as fast as he can. The soldier stood still for a moment before promptly falling to the ground backwards.
As Mitsuko reaches the top of the wall she saw a boulder fly overhead crashing into a nearby building. She still couldn't believe she stumbled upon the thunder cart catapults. She did wonder what happened to the crew though…especially with the bloodstains on the catapults and the ground. However she figured the enemy of her enemy is her friend. Pang Tong suggested she take the catapults and use them to her advantage which Mitsuko agreed. She ordered a few soldiers to man the catapults and knock down the gates as they loaded up the ammunition. So far they've been very effective. She started to make her way to the drawbridge control in the south.
'It-it's the serpent!' A soldier stops and points at her declaring her presence to the few soldiers on the walls guarding the drawbridge controls. They get their weapons ready. She smirks as she quickened her pace to meet her enemy. The first enemy lunges at her with a sword however before he got in range, Mitsuko swipes him. Horizontally striking his chest, the momentum of the swing making him fall off the embrasures off the wall. Another lunges at Mitsuko and thrusts with her spear. Without stopping Mitsuko slashes his neck and sidesteps the attack. The soldier falls off the wall inside the castle and crashes on top of a couple of tents. She sees two more sprint towards her, swords in hand. She strikes upwards before they got in range. Knocking the first one back and landing on the second who landed on his back. He pushes the corpse off quickly to try and get back on his feet. Though as he sits up the crescent blade slices the right side of his neck as Mitsuko runs past him. He grasps the wound tightly before lying down again, blood continuously pouring out from the wound.
She eventually reached the guards in very close proximity to the drawbridge controls. She leaps using her back foot surprising them as she slashes the first guard diagonally downwards leaving a huge wound in his torso. He falls backwards. Another soldier immediately thrusts his spear attempting to hit her in the abdomen as she landed. Mitsuko blocks the attack and moves the attack downwards. Mitsuko with such speed twists the blade, raises and strikes his exposed neck. The momentum of the swing made his body swing to the right before promptly falling off the wall, landing on another soldier attempting to escape the chaos of the castle. The lone survivor gazes upon Mitsuko in both awe and horror. Her eyes pierced his soul as she confidently smirks, wondering if he'll surrender or fight. Alas he chose poorly. As he raises his sword while shouting, Mitsuko strikes upwards aiming for his gut. The crescent blade was stuck inside him, he couldn't utter any last words as he feels his strength waning. He drops his sword as he looks upon Mitsuko's reptilian eyes with terror written all over his face. Mitsuko smiled demonically as she raises the scythe high and slams him to the ground behind her. The impact caused him to cough blood once before releasing a death sigh.
Content, Mitsuko returns her attention to the drawbridge controls which is handled by levers that require two or more people to move as you push in the same direction. Mitsuko simply raises her scythe and drops it down on the rope holding the bridge and the mechanism together, cleanly cutting through it. The bridge instantly lowers surprising those in the backlines of Liu Bei's main force.
'Th-the bridge has been lowered!? They look up and see Mitsuko raise her scythe high with a smirk on her lips. Lu Bu's main force cheers as the bridge lowers. As LingQi finishes her opponent she looks up to see Mitsuko. She sighs a breath of relief and wore a warm smile on her face. The enemy starts retreating inside the castle unsure of what to do. They plan to escape from the other side. However they were greeted with more of Mitsuko's soldiers who cut down as many of them as they can. The enemy didn't choose to fight back, they knew they would be slaughtered if they stayed so they attempted to dodge and weave out of the attacks coming their way to give them a small chance of surviving.
As the soldiers cheer as they enter the castle Zang Ba notices that Chen Gong on his horse has not moved and walks up to him cautiously. He sees that he has his head down with his eyes closed.
'Master Chen Gong, is something the matter?' He questioned. Chen Gong looks up to Mitsuko standing on the wall and sighs.
'That one, I believe will be too much trouble to handle if we don't deal with her soon.' Chen Gong responds before riding off slowly to join the main force. Zang Ba had the urge to slay him there and then, it would only take a single blow however he knew full well what the consequences would be. And that is not what Pang Tong would want since he would be the one to take care of him. Zang Ba sighs, he shouldn't really be feeling like this. Thanks to Mitsuko they won the battle and captured the castle. This should be a time for celebration. Yet he could not get rid of this anger that is building up inside him, something he hasn't experienced with Chen Gong before. His behaviour towards Mitsuko started to infuriate him. Nevertheless he stays his hand, he will let Pang tong deal with him, he can see things no one else can and trusts him to deal with Chen Gong since he may have a plan for him already.
As the remnants of the enemy are either slain or escaped the castle. Lu Bu's forces gather around the large square with Lu Bu on top of red Hare. Whispers begin to circulate before Lu Bu silences them all with just his powerful voice.
'Listen to me! This is what happens to those that betray me! To think that the so called virtuous Liu Bei would betray me is laughable. He may have allied with Cao Cao but no matter how many insects stand up before me. They are still mere insects that will be squashed under my boot! This victory proves that, we sill fight and slay all who stand in my way! Now make preparations for tonight, we feast!' He raises his sky piercer high in the air as all the soldier cheered for him. Mitsuko however was disinterested. When she first started her employment in his army she was rather pleased just to be in the army at all. However she noticed that he became more… arrogant. Or perhaps its she's just now noticing something she should've done long ago. Something inside her grew…distasteful of Lu Bu. She couldn't explain what it was. Maybe it was these speeches, maybe it was his leadership decisions that she didn't agree with, she didn't know for certain. What she did know is that she wouldn't mind seeing Lu Bu knocked down a couple of pegs, whether it was Cao Cao, Liu Bei or whoever. She didn't care who it was…maybe she herself may need to do it.
She had to admit that the thought of her beating Lu Bu got her excited…however she knew that he would still beat her with relative ease. Though that did very little to stop the tiny spark of ambition from burning.