Chapter 23:
The End of the Beginning:
Rise of the Shadows - the Middle -
That evening, the offensive started.
But this time, the Archangel Fortress is being hard pressed to hold on. With the arrival of the Forge Corps, the Zaft forces began to employ heavy equipment, such as 10 towering steel plated Siege Towers. Tristan cannons were arranged and began to bombard the Archangel fortress with impunity. Forget the battering ram, now the triple barreled Isolde artillery cannon barraged the gates of Archangel with shot after shot.
To counter this, the Alliance forces had no choice but to use their initially off limits cannons. To conserve ammo however, instead of the simultaneous barrage from all cannons, Murrue and Natarle, aided by Neil and Milly, chooses to aim and fire each cannon individually, so as to make each shot counts. "Aim… FIRE!" A Gottfried cannon roared and its bullet landed accurately and took out a Tristan cannon.
The soldiers, since they can no longer afford to shoot their arrows with impunity, decided on a surefire way to ensure their arrow hits: shoot them POINT BLANK! Sai waited until the enemy reached a dangerously close range before yelling: "FIRE!" As hoped, the arrows hit many of them and exploded, causing massive damage. But some almost managed to get too close. Then, a single heavily armored Corps Legionnaires start moving forward slowly. Like before, Sai waited until they get close, and then fired a volley at point blank. The Legionnaire brought up his shield, and at least 6 arrows stuck on it before exploding in full force. To Sai's horror, once the smoke cleared, the Legionnaire was unscathed and he's still marching forward.
The bespectacled Shadowguard contemplated to fire again, but then someone barked at him from behind and Bushido jumped over him. Roaring, Bushido slashed his katana at the Legionnaire. The heavy unit blocked the slash with his shield… but his horror, Bushido's blade went through his shield like hot knife through butter. "What the-" The Legionnaire didn't have time to finish as the Katana went through his shield and then beheaded him where he stand. Bushido turned to the somewhat frightened Sai. "Strengthen your heart and calm your mind. Even the thickest armors will have chinks that your spear can penetrate. And the mightiest can be slain with but one stroke." Sai regained his bearings and nodded.
Meanwhile, the siege towers are making their way towards the wall. Unlike the ladders, these Siege towers are more heavily protected, and once they do reach the walls, they cannot be pushed down like ladders. And so the soldiers at the top wall tried their best to stop the towers from reaching the walls. Alas, their arrows are simply not enough to penetrate that heavy plating. Well… one can say that… if they are not normal arrows. But one of them suddenly collapsed. "ORAAAA!" Veins popping out of Lockon's arm as he fired another one of his Reaper arrow. The reaper arrow tore through the armor plating, cut off an important pillar structure, causing an entire siege tower to collapse on its own weight. The sniper archer panted and gasped for breath while he's bathing in his own sweat. His right arm is getting blacker and bluer, a sign of internal bleeding and severe bruises. He's injuring himself every time he fired the reaper arrow.
"Enough, Neil-sensei! You keep firing those reaper arrows and you'll destroy your arm!" Milly quickly rushed to her sensei. Neil merely smiled confidently, despite sweat covering his brows. "Look Milly-chan… there are times when you had to get suicidal. Times like these… are the examples." Neil looked nervously over the wall. 8 more siege towers remaining.
"ORAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Fuji suddenly roared and while his other arm was put in a huge sling, his other arm lifted a rubble and throw it hard. The rubble went through a siege tower and it collapsed as well.
Looking at this, Courtney gulped. "I gotta hand it to them, Raww. Killing Ragnos I can deal with, but they just went through 3 siege towers within minutes… That's a hell of a record… even for Alliance soldiers of any division… And WHAT the hell is that GIANT?" The Centurion screamed the last part in frustration.
"Don't get me started. And you haven't seen anything yet." Raww commented glumly.
The cannons began to focus on the siege towers. But alas, the cannonballs just can't get through that thick armor. And the siege towers are getting closer and closer. Murrue roared. "Not at the towers!" She pointed at a bunch of Legionnaires pushing the towers. "Shoot the Legionnaires! Bring them down!" The cannon team quickly adjusted their cannons to shoot downward. A salvo of three cannons decimated the base of the siege tower along with the Legionnaires pushing the towers and it collapsed as well. But by that time, two towers had reached the walls. The knights inside it were eagerly waiting to burst out. Unknown to them, Tolle and Yoko were waiting just outside the towers. The moment the tower door opened, the knights burst out, but they were welcomed with a hail of Molotov cocktails of fish oil. The Molotov exploded in their faces and burned the insides of the towers' top floor.
By then however, the rest of the towers had landed on the walls and start pouring soldiers. The soldiers were quickly overwhelmed. But Prayer and Sven were quick to the rescue of the left flank wall. The right flank however… Tolle noticed the right wall is in danger of falling as a single banner of Zaft was lifted. Tolle roared in deviance, carrying two swords, he began cutting his way through a swath of Zaft knights. Every knight thinks he's the real Kage at this point and began running away in fear or just jump over the wall if only to escape his wrath. By the time Tolle arrived where he needs be, he already left a trail of dead Zaft knights on the upper wall's floor. He reached a foot of the knights erecting the banner and cut the leg down. The knight roared in pain, but Tolle ended his scream short with a sword to his gullet. He grabbed the banner staff and realized it's also a spear. He took the spear and looked around and saw a bunch of angry knights glaring at him. "Come on!" Tolle challenged, holding a spear and a sword in his hands.
The knights roared and charged at the boy. The first knight got stabbed through his head with the spear. "THIS IS FOR KUZZEY!" Tolle grabbed the knight's sword and slide under the next two knights, slitting their stomach as he went. "THIS IS FOR AMATERASU!" Then he grabbed the previous spear by the base of the spear and pulled it out to stab another knight in the stomach. Tolle grabbed another sword while he threw the current one to another knight, killing him instantly.
Before he can continue, a heavily armored knight appeared before him. A Corps Legionnaire, carrying a pair of swords, his shield covered his back. Tolle gritted his teeth and roared as he swiped an axe from the ground. He slashed his sword first, but the Legionnaire bashed it away to pieces and then retaliated with a sword stab. Tolle backed away to avoid the stab, but all the sudden, the sword's handle extended, turning it into a short spear, dramatically increasing its reach. Tolle reflexively bent downward and narrowly missed the stab, earning a scratch on his shoulder. Roaring angrily, he dashed forward, step over the Legionnaire and roll over his shield, knocking it off the Legionnaire's back, exposing a sizeable chink just underneath the back of the helmet exposing the neck and Tolle quickly smashed the axe there. The Legionnaire screamed in pain. Tolle grabbed the Legionnaire's arms from behind, jumped, placed his feet at the axe before stomped away, further sinking the axe while forcibly pushed the Legionnaire away. The feat earned Tolle an unexpected loot. The two Lance-Sword that the Legionnaire were using ended up in his hands. Tolle quickly stab the spear and the sword to Legionnaire's belly before finishing with a beheading through a double slash underneath the helmet. "AND THIS IS FOR MY COUNTRYMEN!" Tolle breathe heavily as he regained his bearings and looked at the two new weapons.
At first glance, it looked like a pair of swords. But the handle, he noted, can be extended to the length to almost the same length as the sword itself at a flick of a finger, creating a short spear. It can also be retracted as easily to make a sword for close combat capability. It's quite light and sturdy, despite the unique mechanism. The two Lance-swords can also be combined pommel to pommel, creating a double headed spear. Tolle smiled satisfying. Kira has Shiki, and now he just found a weapon that will become his for the rest of the foreseeable future. A spear that can extend to the sky, as if reaching for it… "Skygraspers. Yep. That does sound like a good name." Having finished naming and admiring his new Skygraspers, Tolle saw the situation and the time is just about right, all siege towers have landed and vulnerable. "NOW!" He yelled as loud as his tired lung can.
Prayer heard the call and realized the time is now indeed. "BALLISTA UNIT! NOW!" As instructed, groups of Ballista squad appeared allover the walls, flanking the siege towers. They quickly aimed at the tower and fired a massive steel tipped hook arrow, tied to one end of the rope, the other end were tied to a weight currently held suspended. The large hook arrow went through the Siege Tower's armor plating and its hook latched on to the tower's insides. Two of such arrows were fired to each tower. And then, the Ballista team quickly dropped the weights connected to the rope tied to the said arrow. The weight went into a short free fall and stopped suddenly, pulling the rope. On the other end, the arrows were yanked hard, and the whole structure began to tilt dangerously until the siege tower collapsed at last, crushing other knights beneath it as well as the ones inside it. It became apparent then that the Soldiers had already prepared for this.
Courtney gasped and held his breath as he watched more and more of the Ballista squads appeared, and the same routine occurred again. One by one the towers were brought down, routing the knights around them. "Emperor, deliver us… is this really the 7th division?"
Tolle looked at the routed knights and grinned satisfyingly beneath his mask. He looked far ahead, saw Raww from the distance and realized he was looking at him. Tolle fearlessly glared back, took the spear flag, and, before the horrified eyes of all stunned Zaft knights, he burned the banner of Zaft and then stabbed it to the ground, upside down: a declaration of war as well as an insult to the Zaft Empire.
Contrary to what one would expect of a loyal officer of the Empire, Raww's lips parted into a smile of admiration. "Someone make note of that man's bravery."
The soldiers, likewise, looked in awe of the Shadowguard. Karren whistled. "Who is that fake Kage? He's gonna be somebody someday…"
One of the soldiers answered. "He came with Kage along with the other Shadowguards… I think his name is… Tolle… Tolle Koenig… I think."
"Tolle Koenig…" Sven repeat the name.
Bushido smiled. "This one shall remember the name."
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The Alliance soldiers celebrate their victory. They began to hope that not only they may survive this… they might actually WIN this!
But away from all the revelry, the officers of the Alliance forces engaged in a rather gloom meeting.
"We're out? As in… completely OUT?" Yoko exclaimed in disbelief.
"Yes. Our battle today really ran us dry. All we have left are just a couple barrels of arrows. And tomorrow… the cannons are probably good for only one more salvo… and that's it." Murrue made her report.
"We're out of ammo." Tolle surmised.
"And men." Lockon followed his right arm in a sling. "But didn't Kage leave us a strategy when the ammos are out?"
"He did… actually…" Tolle pull out the second letter. He ripped it open and read it before showing its content to the others.
They read it, and left bewildered as well as horrified.
Natarle stood aghast. What on earth is going on in that boy's head? "It's… It's…"
"Terrifying? Unethical?" Chiba felt like she almost vomited.
"But to be honest if you look at it from a logical standpoint…" Urabe gulped. "It might be the only choice we have left…"
"But I still don't agree about this part. We can't do this! Not only because it's suicide, it's also not right!" Karren protested over a part of the strategy.
"We'll think of some other way."
And everyone sickeningly agreed on that note.
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Few hours later, in Zaft Encampment…
The encampment was silent that night. Tired and weary after today's ordeal, the knights were all fast asleep. Only a few were awake as they stand guard at each opening. The only tent still alight is the officer's tent. Inside, Raww and his war council are still arguing and thinking up a strategy to take the fortress down, but at this point, they too are losing spirit. They've besieged the Archangel for only for three nights and two days, yet it felt like they've fought for months. Even when the Legions of the Corps arrived, victory seems so far away.
"They should be running out of ammunitions soon, I believe." Raww started as the war council contemplated their next move. "As it is… I believe they'll try something desperate soon."
"We may have lost our entire siege towers… many of our men were killed, but based on numbers and troop conditions, we're still come ahead." A Courtney was somewhat skeptic. "You really think they'll be that desperate?"
"You know what I think? In this battle I somehow reminded of my many matches with Athrun-kun. Every time I think that he won't do a certain move, he slam it in front of my face and do it." Raww frowned as he played around with a chess piece in his hand, his favorite, the bishop. "And Kage's way of thinking is a LOT like Athrun… in ways even I can't imagine."
And then, they suddenly heard an ungodly roar coming from outside. The Fire knights rushed outside to see what's happening.
"They're must be insane…" a Fire knight commented upon seeing what's happening.
To their shock, the Alliance forces took the initiative and go on the OFFENSE.
"You think?" Raww put on his helmet and quickly yelled. "FORM THE LINE!"
Indeed, Kage's second plan, in the event of the ammunition runs out is for the Alliance soldiers to go on the offense. As insane as it may sound. The 1400 men were separated into teams. Small teams, each led by a senior officer. The whole Zaft encampments were attacked simultaneously from every direction, in the dead of the night. The Knights would've easily slaughtered this paltry army… except the fact they are all being led by KAGE.
"Kage led an army and attacked the Stables!"
"Are you nuts? We got Kage attacking the supplies here!"
"I got Kage attacking the western gate!"
The conflicting information of Kage appearing everywhere caused a great confusion among the knights.
Tolle and Prayer led a team and attack from the front at 2 different points.
Chiba and Karren attack the encampment's left flank also at 2 different points.
Senba and Urabe attack from the right flank, also at 2 different points.
Sven and Bushido attack from the rear, also at 2 different points.
And they all wear the garments of Shadowguards, making it as if Kage appeared everywhere. Compounded with their losses, and the terrifying image that Kage had garnered, this caused a great terror among the knights, slowing their response. This allowed the soldiers a few minutes of undisturbed chance to create some havoc. Simultaneous attacks on 8 different spots. Occasionally killing knights, loot supplies whenever possible, bring down the tents and stockades… whatever it takes. Peculiarly, despite the potentially catastrophic damage they could've caused, the soldiers quickly retreated after they merely did minute damage. The letter instructed each team to wreak havoc and then leave under the cover of darkness, as soon as a Fire Knight managed to regain control of their army. And then they attack again at a different location, and repeat the same routine. Each team is to do it twice, and only twice, before they retreat back to the fortress. A hit and run.
…the letter also stated that they must also BURN the forest during the attacks. No matter what they do, it is important. Doing so will maximize the damage beyond what small numbers can do, and forced the Zaft knights to break camp and moved somewhere else, farther away from the Fortress.
Unfortunately, Karren protested at this idea. "The forest is the Archangel's second wall. It had made the deployment of Zaft army to be hindered as the trees get in their way. Without the trees, Zaft knights will be able to maneuver more easily and the fortress Archangel will be exposed completely. We can't burn our own defenses!" Her protest was heard. And so the soldiers unanimously agreed not to conform to this order. However, those who attacked the supply camp still set the enemy's provision on fire.
Furthermore, to compensate, the soldiers deviates slightly from the order and attacked the encampment for the third time. However, there's a reason Kage ordered to attack only twice. The first attack makes use of the initial chaos. The second attack makes use of the time needed for the Knights to take control of the situation. The third attack is ill advised because, by that time, most of the enemy's forces would've already recovered from the shock, and have been brought back under control to respond properly.
Fortunately, the Shiseiken pointed this out, and the soldiers finally opted for an alternative.
A squad led by Kage attacked again. The Fire Knight in command noticed the attack and yelled the order to form the line. All the sudden, out of nowhere, an arrow spear missed the Fire Knight by the throat, nearly killing him. The knights were shocked to find their leader was attacked, and in the confusion that follows, a single salvo of arrows rain upon them, after which, all the sudden, multiple squads of Soldiers burst out of the darkness and attacked the confused knights from every direction.
"W… What? How many ambushers did they-!"
And the knights were being ganged upon. For the third attack, the soldiers were led by the Shiseiken to gang up on one team at a time, under support fire of the expert archers: Neil and Milly, hiding in an obstructed terrain along with their team of archers. However, as with the previous attacks, the soldiers decided to flee as soon as they've done very little damage, as if the point was only to scare them.
"Next, Milly-chan, aim at that group by the trees. Men! Follow her lead!" His arm still injured, Neil can only give instructions to Milly while giving her pointers. Milly had made a makeshift large bow using trees which she used to fire Neil's spear arrow. Unlike her master, she still needs to use both of her hands to pull the bowstring. But it's been bloody damn effective so far. Milly let loose the Destroyer this time, as her archer team followed suit. The fire knight blocked the Destroyer in time, but the blunt arrow left an imprint on his shield and knocked him off his mount. The arrow shower that followed slew the Fire Knight's horse and many of the knights as well. Such was the accuracy. The Fire knight fell only to see Kages coming from every direction. He quickly stood up to fight back, but a Kage with a curved Katana sliced his arm off, the other with Katanas sliced him twice by the chests, and one with a Lance-Sword stab him by the jaw killing him instantly. The other knights were quickly routed. But the soldiers did not chase them and instead flee again.
"Okay, here's the last raid, and then we're off." Tolle gave out instruction as the ambushers retreated back.
Their last target is a squad stationed near the infirmary. The Knights in this area were being lead by a certain young wood knight. But unlike the other units, Nichol ordered the Knights to charge forward. "We charge! Don't let them gain a momentum. Take them head on! CHAAARGE!" The Wood knight led his brethren and charged straight to where Tolle and Prayer were waiting. The two alliance soldiers didn't expect this, and so they had no choice to order a charge as well. Thus the ambushers' squads charged out of their hiding spot prematurely before the archers can fire. The two armies collided and the formation is in complete mess. As the result, the archers couldn't give a support, fearing they might shoot at their own.
Nichol roared as he punched a soldier, seemingly gently, but in reality, the soldier's neck was dislocated. Another soldier came at him with a spear. The boy smoothly dodged the spear, gave a light stab with his two fingers at the soldier's chest, and the man's heart burst out of his back. A soldier didn't have a chance to scream when Nichol slap and spin his head 180 degrees, breaking it. Within moments, Nichol had scored dozens of kills and the soldiers learn to stay far away from the boy's gentle touches for it means certain death.
However, this high headcount practically paint a targeting mark on Nichol's head, as Milly quickly surmised that this boy has to go. She quickly aimed at the commanding officers, waiting for an opening. Problem is the boy showed very few opening, a clear sign of a trained fighter. But then, Tolle charged at him with a roar and Nichol was distracted, giving that opening. She quickly let loose the destroyer.
Nichol heard the sound of the approaching object and turned around to see a blunt arrow mere seconds away from goring his head. His bloodline limit kicked in and with supersonic speed, he managed to smash the arrow away. But the projectile was shot with such force, his hands gone numb just by deflecting it, and he stumbled to the ground. Before he can recover, the Shadowguard with twin Lancesword is already right in front of him, ready to make the killing stroke that he cannot dodge in time.
Until a long two-handed sword slide in and blocked the attack.
Nichol looked at his savior and gaped. It was Ignis… or rather… the 'fake' Ignis. "YOU? What…"
"FORM THE LINE! REFORM THE LINE!" Ignis shouted amidst the chaos. The knights weren't aware about the whole fake Ignis ordeal, so when they saw a Fire Knight giving orders, they instinctively followed. Ignis swing his sword and smashed the Lancesword away. Ignis glared at the Shadowguard. The masked warrior seems unnerved at the glare as he quickly shouted. "PULL BACK! PULL BAAACK!"
And within moments the ambushers retreated into the darkness. Just then, the archers again fired another salvo to cover for the fleeing soldiers. The soldiers are fleeing. Ignis stared at the downed Nichol and offered his helping hand.
Nichol looked at Ignis skeptically and finally took that hand and get back to his feet. Nichol blinked at the sensation. It felt warm… and… kind? He quickly shook his head. Get a grip Nichol! This man is a spy. He'll try to earn your trust! Nichol's train of thoughts was cut off as a tide of angry roar began to rise.
"Those natural bastards! How dare they attack us!" The knights were angry. The damage to their encampment is negligible. The casualties are minuscule, when one compared it to the previously astronomical headcount. The damage was more to their pride rather than body. Multiple waves of night raid at various points of their encampments and a squad of knights was nearly annihilated, one Fire knight is dead, and yet there's not a single alliance soldier was captured or killed. The attack was intended more for a showoff: that the Naturals can come and go inside their encampment as they please. That if they choose to, they could've caused more damage than they already have. And that, naturally, pissed everybody off.
Thus, the angry knights began to leave their posts and charged ahead, chasing after the fleeing soldiers into the fortress. Nichol was horrified at this, and he was about to rose up and chased after them when he felt a firm grip on his shoulder. "Don't go." Nichol turned and saw Ignis, bearing down on him. "It's a trap." Nichol was compelled to slap that arm away, but these warmness… the sincerity in his tone, and the kindness he perceived forced him to stand down and lay still, and listen to what these man said.
Raww is also concerned about how his knights, consumed by rage and frustration charged out of the encampment to chase the fleeing soldiers. One Fire knight in particular was reeling them, and he was quickly assembling yet another army. "Onward! We'll get those naturals! And we'll take down that fortress tonight!" The knights were more than happy to oblige.
Raww quickly approached the Fire knight and saw it was Etious. "Brother Etious! Stop them! You're heading towards a trap!"
"You've said it yourself. They've run out the supplies for their weapons. This night attack is a proof of that: this is a sign of desperation. If they're using all of their standing forces to do this, then now is the only chance to conquer that infernal fortress! Before they can recover!"
Raww shook his head. "This isn't the same. Listen to me Brother… Kage has proven to us that he was capable of controlling his army even when he's miles away from them. There's a purpose in everything he does. And I do not believe he would risk the total annihilation of his standing army just for the sole purpose of pissing us off!"
"All the MORE reason to stop them NOW! If these soldiers are Kage's eyes and limbs, then it'll be better to cut them off now before he came up with more imaginative means to destroy us!" Etious argued again. His decision to counterattack now seems final, and Raww realized Etious was too angry as well as too confused to listen to reason. Before Raww can say anything else that might change his mind, Etious charged ahead, along with other knights.
Meanwhile…
The Shadowguards and the other Kage copycats led the alliance soldiers on the escape. Tolle paused for a moment, climbed a tree and looked behind. He saw torches and loud noises of knights trampling towards them. He realized the first phase of the plan is working. Just then, an arrow narrowly missed his head. Instead of being angry, Tolle merely smiled nervously. 'Oh, we've pissed them off alright.' And he quickly jumped away to another safer tree.
Indeed, the knights were very angry. All the frustration they've been building up seems to explode that night. Etious and a squad of Exorcists and Knights charged ahead of everyone. He saw Tolle at the tree, took a crossbow and fired. Cursing when he missed. Angrily, Etious followed that fake Kage as he jumped from tree to tree, far ahead of him, but Etious somehow managed to keep up, if barely. "Keep jumping you cowardly monkey… once I get my hands on you…!" Etious keep looking up as he rushed through the forest with his men in tow. He forgot to keep an eye at the other soldiers. But then again, he felt that he didn't have to. If they take out the leader, the other soldiers would just disperse. Right?
And then, the Shadowguard suddenly jumped out of the view. Etious quickened his pace for fear of losing their prey. There's an opening up ahead, and they are leaving the forest. Once they get out of the forest, they were welcomed with a loud battle cry that stopped them on their tracks. In front of them, masses of soldiers had gathered in an unruly battle formation. Yelling, screaming, crying for blood. Etious gritted his teeth and answered the yell with the battlecry of his own. The cry was answered by all other knights in vicinity. And they quickly charged.
It was dark. But the knights need not any lighting to recognize their enemies and they plowed through the unruly militia army like grass. The Knights butchered everyone in their way, not even a single militia soldier was left untouched, and not an ounce of mercy was given. They killed them all, cut them all to pieces. The Alliance soldiers' battle cry died down as their soldiers were slaughtered one by one. And that was when Etious felt something really strange is going on. These soldiers… they're carrying weapon, yet why didn't they attack back? He heard their battle cry… so why didn't he hear their screams of pain?
And then, dawn cracked. As the first light burst out from the horizon, Etious's eyes were opened to the truth.
The soldiers… were merely human sized scarecrows being dressed up and crudely set so as to resemble actual soldiers. The knights stopped when they all realized they've been cutting apart dolls. "We… We've been tricked?"
But Etious' mind flew back to what Raww said: "There's a purpose in everything he does." Etious grabbed a scarecrow and rummaged it. Then he found packages of foul smelling shrapnel buried inside the scarecrows. And there's a talisman of some sort inside it. Etious looked again at their surroundings and realized his knights were standing right in the middle of hundreds of such dolls. He looked again at the shrapnel, making note of the foul odor, recognizing the smell.
In a hidden and safe spot, far away from the danger area, Tolle took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and made the seal: "Katsu."
The last thing that crossed Etious mind was the sentence: "Forgive me, Brother Raww… I've doomed us all."
In the Zaft encampment, Raww heard the sound of the explosion and realized what's going on, and so he mourned yet again for another one of their brothers was lost.
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In the morning, the knights visited the place of the disaster and began trudging through the dead. That night, Etious brought about 780 knights with him, and right now they're all dead, no survivors. The knights mournfully took off the fallen one's weapons and armor, and then lined up their bodies to be carried back to the encampment, to be buried accordingly.
Then, Raww arrived at the scene, together with 'Ignis', Courtney, and Nichol. Nichol, in particular, was perplexed at the carnage before him. "I don't understand… how… how can he do this to us so easily? To make us sent thousands of our brothers to their deaths…"
Raww was wondering about that as well. Quite frankly, his first guess was this Ignis was a spy. But, Nichol had confirmed that Ignis didn't try to contact anyone. He remained in isolation… heck, he chose to isolate himself, never get out, and only yesterday he fought for them! Now Raww purposefully brought the man along to see if he can extract the man's true color.
'Ignis' saw the carnage with horror, but in particular, he pay attention to the knights carrying the dead back to camp. There are only a few dozen corpses left now and they've been lined up, ready to be moved.
"Horrifying isn't it? Brother Ignis?" Raww started.
Ignis didn't answer. Instead, to the surprise of everyone, he got down from his mount and approached a corpse.
"Ignis?" Raww was somewhat alarmed, but he kept his silence.
Ignis studied a corpse, and then asked for a dagger from a knight. Carefully, Ignis pricked a small wound at the corpse' body. The blood was black and dirty. Ignis suddenly stood upright, seemingly in shock. "Oh no… Brother Raww… we have to burn these bodies!"
"What?" Now Raww was a bit surprised. "Why?"
"These bodies are diseased!"
Of all the possible excuses a spy can come up with to destroy a corpse, this one is the least expected and by far the most terrifying reason Raww ever heard all his life. "I beg…your…pardon?" And as the weight of those words entered his consciousness, Raww forget about the whole spy ordeal for a moment and was quick to connect the dots, realizing what's really going on. The full scope of Kage's second strategy came crashing in as if Raww was reading the full content of Kage's second letter before his very eyes. "By the… Gods…" Kage wasn't aiming to slaughter just a paltry few hundred with some trap that make use of their ego. His target… was the entire army!
The Senior Knights quickly rushed back to the encampment as soon as they burned all the knights' bodies in a crude funeral pyre, but they knew it was too late: by now most of the bodies has been taken back to the main encampment and their tainted equipments have already been salvaged, the intact ones have been redistributed to the army-effectively infecting them all with the disease. The damage is done.
And in a quick order…
Hundreds of Knights who handled the corpses were told to line up and quarantined in an isolated area, far away from the main encampment, guarded by other knights with special masks to keep themselves from being infected.
"The Knights' corpses were lacerated with shrapnel that has been dipped into the blood of the Alliance own dead soldiers… ones which had become rotten and diseased, if I might add." Raww explained as he showed the War Council a single shrapnel in his hand. Its foul stench fills the air. "The shrapnel infected the dead bodies of our Knights with diseases as it killed them. Knowing that we will come to collect our dead, they used those corpses as a medium to infect us all. These few doomed hundreds were but the firsts of many. By now the infection had spread throughout our army. As it is… we're looking at a major epidemic in the making."
The Fire knights paled at the explanation. They looked at each other with worry. The advanced may have a stronger immunity than the naturals… but that doesn't make them invulnerable to diseases. "First they attacked us with trick explosive arrows and now they sent diseases at us! What kind of sick mind of a monster could come up with such a scheme?"
"One whose plan had succeeded beyond our wildest imagination. We have to break camp and abort the whole operation." Raww declared. Some knights were still wondering if their ears heard the statement right.
"You mean we must… retreat? Admit that our expedition is a total failure?" One of the Fire Knights shouted in rage and denial as he banged the table, crushing it.
Raww pressed on. "We were too late to stop this. Some of these bodies had been buried instead of being properly burned. Do you understand? The land itself is diseased! Our army cannot stay here anymore. And we cannot fight a war with disease rampaging in our ranks! We must…" Raww gritted his teeth in pure anger. It took him every ounce of his dignity to say this. "…we must pull back and call off this campaign… or our losses will become even worse!"
The Fire Knights of the council tried to find some way to retort the statement, but they too are at lost.
With a heavy heart, Raww cast a vote. "I'm no longer a Hakutenkun. Yet you all followed me out of your respect to me. I appreciate that… but…I… have doomed us all. I will take full responsibility for this. This… proposal of retreat… is not an order. It's a suggestion. You all can choose. All those in favor to leave… raise your hands."
A reluctant unanimous decision was made.
In a small Zaft tent…
Ignis was placed in a room arrest. He refused to remove his helmet, but he was barred from leaving the tent. Only Nichol was currently present and kept watch of the fake Fire Knight.
"You're the strangest spy I've ever met." Nichol blatantly stated.
"Spy? Me? After all I've done for you guys?"
"We know who you are." Nichol replied. No more need to play hide and seek. Just go at it clean.
"Very poor choice of words. Knowing implies knowledge of names and status. Just because you know my job description doesn't make you know who I am."
"So you admit that you're a spy?"
"I admit I'm not who I claimed to be." 'Ignis' came clean. "But you've been following me for the last few days, tracing my every step. If I've done anything, you would be the first to know."
Nichol blinked and looked at the fake knight. So he knew he was following him even when he's invisible? For a moment, he wanted to ask who are you. But the question that flowed out of his lips was: "Why did you saved me last night?"
"Maybe because I wanted to earn your trust?"
Textbook answer. Of course. But the boy felt the spy was lying. Before Nichol can explore any further, Raww burst into the tent. He looked at Nichol and then to 'Ignis.'
"So he confessed?"
"In a way." Nichol nodded.
The fake Ignis didn't say anything.
"So. What are you after Mr. Impostor?"
"Imagine a firecracker. You placed it at the open palm of your hand. You set it off, it explodes, and you get burned." The fake Ignis began to talk in gibberish. Nichol was a bit taken back and thought of beating some sense into the man but Raww, peculiarly interested, motioned the Fake Ignis to go on. "Now you place that same firecracker in your hand, you wrapped your fingers around it, closed it in your fist, you set it off. What happened next?" The Fake knight chuckled at the obvious answer. "Your wife will be opening your ketchup bottles for the rest of her life."
Raww glanced meaningfully at the Fake Ignis before him, trying to figure this man out. His gaze flew towards the damaged and battered Archangel fortress. The gaping hole left behind by Ragnos' breach is visible even from this distance. Wait. A gaping hole?
Raww quickly turned to the Fake Ignis. His frown of realization turned into a curious smile at this mysterious helper. "So. You've warned us of the disease… and then you gave us the door to Archangel. What do you hope to gain from all this?"
The Fake Ignis merely stated coldly: "Only to bring that damn fortress down."
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That afternoon, the scout sent from the Archangel Fortress returned with happy news: the Zaft forces had retreated, en-masse.
The soldiers cheered and yelled cries of joy the like of which that have never been heard in the halls of the Fortress upon the news. "WE WON! HAHHAHAW! WE WOOON! THE BATTLE IS OVER!"
They hugged each other, they danced, they sing, they laughed. Some even cried tears of joy for having managed to survive.
"I can't believe it. We've survived two invasions! Two invasions! Can you believe it?" A weary soldier relaxed with his back against a crumbling wall.
"Two? Where's the other one came from?" Another one looked at the weary soldier.
"The other one was the Bladebane invasion. That's 120,000 strong. Kage-Taichou must be giving them Hell right now."
"How can you tell?"
"Have you seen even a single Bladebane throughout this whole ordeal?" The soldier pointed out.
The other soldier blinked and realized it was true. Not a single Bladebane was seen throughout the battle. They only see the Forge Corps, the Exorcists, several Fire Knights and lots of Emerald Knights, but no Bladebanes. If the Bladebane invasion had defeated Kage and his men, they should've been here days ago and joined the invasion. And they'll be worse off. "Blimey… you're right…"
"They say we soldiers are always at the mercy of our commanders. Well, I thank the gods they've given a commander as good as Kage-Taichou. If I survive this, I swear I'm gonna burn incenses, asking the Gods so that the Captain can live to be a hundred!"
The senior officers were also glad that it was over. Murrue sighed and collapsed on her chair, tired as hell. Natarle checked the cannons to see if they are in need of any repairs or maintenance. Neil took a few swigs off his brandy, all inhibition naught. He's been holding it for quite some time now. Karren took the rare opportunity to remove her prosthetic arm and get it checked. She ripped off so many Zaft knights' heads with it that she feared the mechanism will begin to rust. Bushido went to the workshop to have a chip on his sword fixed. Sven… God knows what he's doing.
The Shadowguards and Prayer however, kept their joy reserved. They currently are observing the massive gaping maw of the Archangel Wall. The result of Ragnos' rampage earlier. Prayer looked at the damage and realized it's beyond repair and commented. "They will definitely come from here… and this is where we gonna make our stand."
Tolle took a deep breath and exhaled exasperatedly. "You're sure he'll come? After the Hell we've given them? After everything Kira threw at them?" Tolle rip the second strategy letter to pieces and let the wind took it.
Prayer nodded. "Yes. My brother and I knew Raww too well. Retreat first and then swiftly come back when we rest our guard was the oldest trick in the book he had. From the military point of view…I had to admit it: Kira had predicted everything accurately down to the last detail. And he still has the last trick."
Sai held the last letter in his hand. "I still hope Kira was wrong. I still hope he's just exaggerating." The last letter contains the most monstrous order a man can give. He dearly hoped the wall will stand, otherwise…
Prayer blinked. That's when he noticed everyone in the Shadowguard were in a very gloom atmosphere. Prayer frowned. "…is there something wrong?"
The Shadowguards looked at Prayer and sighed exasperatedly. "We've known Kage… no… we've known Kira for 3 years. Long before… all this…" Sai explained. "During those times… we… well… if someone came at us and tell us that Kira was the sort of person that can… that can… think up a plan that can butcher thousands of people… carnage of this scale… we'd say either you're drunk or completely off your bonkers."
"He wasn't always like this?" Prayer understood what Sai meant though. When you compare how Kira Yamato acted as a chef for the 9th division to how he acted as Kage captain of the 7th division, they're like two vastly different people.
"He's got like… a patience and generosity of a Buddha! It takes a hell lot to piss him off. And I do mean a HELL lot."
Prayer's mouth opened to a small "Hooo… But you know… he was able to outsmart even Raww. And that's saying it a lot. Even I would never thought of harnessing a disease as a weapon in such a manner. You don't get to be that smart without some basic ABC in this area from childhood. Did you guys know him before those 3 years?"
The Shadowguards looked at each other in realization, now that Prayer pointed it out. True. Kira never breathe a word about how he was before he met them. Sure, he told them about his foster parents. He told them about why he was in Amaterasu. But he never…get into the details. They laughed it off and never cared since Kira had always been…well… Kira… And now… only now do they realize… they don't know anything about Kira Yamato.
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As revelry continued in Archangel, danger began to lurk again.
The majority of the Zaft forces did retreated. But Raww, with 45,000 uninfected Knights, along with Courtney, Nichol, and the Fake Ignis, in secret, peeled off and returned back through a different route to Archangel.
The remaining Legionnaires were carrying a couple of large metallic cylindrical contraptions at their back.
The Fake Ignis looked at the contraptions skeptically. "You sure those things can deliver?"
"Ha. If you're a Fire Knight, you should know. Enough Fire… can undo anything." Raww laughed.
The army marched undaunted towards the Archangel.
Come evening, the Fortress is in sight.
Nichol once again became invisible and sneak into the fortress perimeter. The guards are minimal. A former Onyx Hassassin, the green haired boy walked soundlessly through the perimeter. 'Blimey. This is a piece of cake…' Soon, he reached the base of the walls, right before the hole. 'Yosh… no trap or anything. The Corps can plant the explosives saf-' a spear suddenly flew straight at him and nearly crushed him outright by millimeters.
'W… WHAT?' He looked upward in horror. A feminine looking Kage had just unleashed a giant arrow with both of her hand. Next to her is Lockon Stratos, accompanied by the other Kage lookalikes. 'D… Did they see me?' One more look at their eyes, and he realized they did see him. But only until just now.
Milly honestly didn't know what to expect. There she was, standing on guard in the gaping hole, asking Lockon some pointers as to how to better use his spear arrows, and Neil did gave her some. She unleashed one of his arrows on a whim to some random direction. And then the arrow landed… apparently, by pure coincidence, very close to an invisible knight who happened to be there. Too close, that the Invisible knight unwittingly revealed himself.
One more look at the exposed Knight was all it took. "ENEMY SIGHTED! WE GOT COMPANY! SOUND THE ALARM!" Lockon roared as loud as he can. The soldiers gasped in surprise and quickly ring the alarm bell as loud as he can, waking up the whole base as torches were lit everywhere. Nichol realized he had blown it and quickly retreated back to the main army.
Raww's eyes widened in awkwardness. Courtney slapped his head. "Just our luck. There goes our surprise attack."
The soldiers in Archangel jerked awake and quickly returned to their position. This time, it only took 5 minutes for them all to enter battle station. In the meantime, the Knights of Zaft, the whole 45,000 of them also emerged and lined up. Both sides looked at each other, ready for the final battle at last.
The soldiers looked at the knights and gulped. "Th… there's still so many of them…"
"Not as many as they could've been. Kage did a number… we did a number on them." Sai reassured his soldiers. "Show them no mercy. I don't think they've ever give any to us either." The soldiers nodded in agreement and gripped their weapons tighter.
"Just get ready to fight with all you have. These guys are half dead." Tolle pulled out his Skygraspers, ready to fight to the end.
Milly and Neil took their position by the walls along with their archers. Neil prepared a series of strings and used his left arm to pull the bow while Milly placed the arrow spears. Murrue and Natarle manned the cannons, but waited for the right moment. They only have enough ammo for one last salvo-one shot from each cannon, and that's it. Each shot had to count. They don't have anything else now. Only the old tricks. The glue for ladders; out, peppers; out, rocks; out, oil; out, mines; out, explosive tags; out, arrows; dwindling. Likewise, the opposition didn't have their cannons or siege towers. And the 45,000 are mostly consisted of only average Knights, very few of the specialized units. Unlike before, Prayer concentrated all their forces just behind the gaping hole of the Archangel. They knew damn well this is where the hammer stroke will fall hardest. They can only rely on melee skills now. And in all scenarios, the Alliance soldiers always suffer more casualties than the Zaft Knights when it comes to direct melee combat.
Raww looked at Courtney and nodded. Courtney starts banging his shield. And then, slowly, the other knights also banged their shields. This is a sign of resolution: we will fight to the death. Either you or we who'll die tonight. Soon all knights banged their shields menacingly. In response, Milly ordered the archers to take aim.
Some of the soldiers began to tremble in fear at the overwhelming sound.
The banging gets louder and louder, until suddenly, due to sheer nervousness, one soldier slipped his arrow, and the projectile flew and pierced a knight's throat. The banging stopped short.
"HOLD YOUR FIRE!" Milly yelled before anyone can fire again.
The knight dropped lifelessly to the ground. Raww raised his sword and swing it forward, and gave the command: "CHARGE!"
With a battle cry, the knights charged in.
"Give them a volley." Likewise, Prayer yelled.
"FIRE!" Neil yelled, followed by Milly, and every soldier unleashed their arrows. The first salvo of the last.
The first line of knights were completely taken out, but the knights at the back trample over them and charged on. The arrows were a mixture of explosive and normal ones, but mostly the latter. Thus the destructive power pales in comparison with the previous salvo. They focus on a certain area: the gaping hole of the beat up Archangel Walls. The knights brought up their shields and plow through the wave of arrows. They've also prepared a sturdy ladder and banged it on the opening and began climbing up. The first knight who got to the top was welcomed with a hail of spears that gutted him on various parts, courtesy of Sai and his team of spearmen. The dead knight fell and another quickly rose up when the spear was retracted, and the same routine happened again.
The knights quickly placed ladder on the other section of the walls to infiltrate the wall from there to draw soldiers to them, lessening the soldiers guarding their target. However, upon reaching a gun opening, they were welcomed with a battering ram. Meanwhile, ladders of various heights were also prepared, in particular, a ladder tall enough to allow the soldiers to climb all the way to the top floor of the wall.
Meanwhile, the knights had managed to bring up to three ladders upon the hole. And it began to overwhelm the spearmen squad. One by one, the knights began to infiltrate the walls. A knight bashed a soldier off while slicing another before Sai slides in and stabs him by the throat. Soon, the soldiers began to engage in a melee combat, but as expected, they were hopelessly outclassed in close range. The knights began to pour in and attacked everyone inside.
The tall ladder was ready and a knight fired a massive roped arrow to the top wall. They pulled the rope and the ladder, carrying knights on it, began to be carried up. Tolle yelled: "LADDER! LADDER!" That was a sign for the soldiers to ready their melee weapons. The ladder slowly rose up, undaunted by shower of arrows focused on it, until it finally latched unto the upper wall, and the knights began to pour in there as well, unleashing carnage. Prayer and Tolle yelled, aided by the three Shiseiken, leading their soldiers to battle.
Meanwhile, Sai was hard pressed to defend his spot. With his spearmen overwhelmed, the knights are now pouring in unabated and managed to infiltrate the walls, and Sai ordered a retreat to the inner structure. Inside, the Knights start killing every soldier they came across. One knight was about to score another kill when a spear went through his arm and then his chest, killing him instantly. Brandishing her Iron Maiden spear, Murrue glared at the knights and charged them. Next to her, Karren had just finished putting back her new claw arm while giving some pat of thank you to Simon (with her normal arm), who quickly scurried away, scared. Shrieking angrily, she began her onslaught as well, plowing through the knights, cutting a swath of bloodbath, broken weapons and rolling dismembered heads in her rampage.
On the other side of the wall's interior, a knight's head was crushed by a morning star, courtesy of Natarle, swinging the spiked ball at the top of her head. In another part of the interior, a whole squad of knights was cut to pieces as soon as Sven slither around them with great speed, cutting them all to pieces with his two Whip-swords. On the other part, Bushido stated. "You shall not pass beyond this point." Even though the knights had infiltrated the fortress wall's interior, they found themselves cut off everywhere, with members of seated officers and Juppongatana guarded all doors and openings at important sections. The knights couldn't progress any further, and the alliance soldiers, led by Sai, began to pour in and overwhelm them.
However, the knights weren't finished. With the hole in the Archangel successfully secured, they began secretly loading in the bombs they've prepared into the opening. They placed four charges and quickly ran away once the deed is done. And then, a lone Exorcist suddenly light himself up and began running towards the Fortress. Fortunately, Tolle noticed the alight exorcists and realized something's coming. Something bad. "MILLY!" He screamed loudly to his girlfriend. Milly turned around and saw the exorcists as well. She didn't need any more details. Unfortunately, she's out of her explosive arrows. "Neil-sensei!"
Neil gaped and began frantically shoot his arrow spear. The Destroyer went through the air and pulverized the burning knight's arm, but he still went on. Apparently he intend on a suicide run. Tolle frantically yelled to all archers within earshot. "SHOOT HIM DOWN! SOMEBODY SHOOT HIM DOWN!" The archers saw the exorcist and sent a barrage of arrows at the flaming knight. But alas, all projectiles were burned before they can even touch him. Neil shot the bender, and it penetrated the knight by the gullet, and still he charged forward, ignoring all his wounds. Really desperate now, Milly grabbed the Reaper arrow and pulled it hard, screaming as she exerted what little strength she can muster. With a final scream, she let loose the Reaper just as the Exorcist began to climb up the ladder.
The Reaper accurately rip the Exorcists by the head from top to bottom, all the way to his crotch, completely turning him into a flaming sack of ripped flesh. The arrow also destroyed the ladder, and the exorcist's misshapen corpse fell dead.
Courtney banged his fists. "SHIT! That was our last Exorcist!"
Tolle and the other soldiers cheered at this small success.
Unbeknownst to everyone, a certain person made a small seal.
And the explosive tag secretly placed on the bombs set off.
With a thunderous explosion, the bombs exploded with an unworldly force that shook the whole fortress, to the surprise of everyone present, inside and out, Alliance and Zaft. Tolle screamed as the walls of Archangel exploded right beneath him. Milly was luckier as she was farther away from the blast, but it still threw her off the floor, away from the ground zero. The battle grinded to a halt as all widened eyes turned towards the explosion. The blast tore the right side of the Archangel gargantuan wall apart, all 10 stories of it, top to bottom, collapsed from inside out. The result was a giant gaping opening, a pathway of rubbles and debris, large enough for the knights to just walk through them en-masse. Fragments were shot to every direction, while giant slabs of stone, thrown high to the air, landed all across the battlefield, smashing anyone unfortunate enough to be at their landing sites. The walls of Archangel are breached.
The soldiers and the knights stare dumbly at the freshly made pathway that just appeared out of nowhere by some miracle. Raww quickly turned his gaze to 'Ignis', who seem as shocked as he was. Raww decided to reserve his judgment for later. He raised his voice and yell: "CHAAARGE!"
The knights were knocked out of their stupor and remembered what they had to do. And the battle resumed again as the knights charged into the opening. Just then, a hand burst out of the rubbles, and the knights halted. The hand belonged to Tolle, who quickly tried to dig himself out. The boy choked some dust and sand out of his mouth. His body felt numb, his ears half deaf, his vision is still blurred, and his head… God… his head is splitting him to pieces. He looked around, trying to find his hand and found it. And then slowly, everything began to come together. Tolle looked around. Half of his body was buried in the rubble. He remembered the wall of Archangel exploded right beneath him. The shock made him lose consciousness. And then he woke up and realized his situation. He looked at the knights in front of him. "W… what are you looking at?"
"My God…"
"That's Kage?"
"Look at his face! No older than my own son!"
Tolle heard the whispers. He slowly touched his face and realized his mask has been blown to bits, revealing his identity to everyone. With this realization, also came the sensation that has been held back awhile ago: pain. His whole body is ravaged with seething pain. And yet, as he slowly flexed bits and parts of his body through the numbing pain, he can still feel all of his limbs to be intact. Even though many parts of his body are bleeding, he's still alive. 'But how did I survive a blast like…' Tolle felt something inside him was crushed. His first thought, his bones. But then, as he slowly caressed his chest, he felt it was his vest's insides that were crushed. To be specific: the weight padded into his vest had acted as some sort of a blast shield that protected him from direct explosion. Tolle grinned, that and all the blast and explosions Kira had given him had made his body more resilient to explosions. Now that he think about it, Toille suddenly felt more appreciative of it. "Thanks Kira." And then, he struggled wildly, grunting, growling, and trying to get up.
The Knights realized that this 'Kage' is still alive and is about to fight some more if not for the rubbles burying him down. This is their only chance to prevent whatever Hell this Kage can unleash! The Knights roared and charged forward, intending to land the killing blow.
Milly saw what was happening and quickly rallied her archers. The knights were just a breath away when Tolle had just burst out of the rubble and Milly screamed the order to her archers. "FIRE!" And the arrows flew straight towards Tolle. The arrows all narrowly missed Tolle and pierced through all knights near the Shadowguard. Tolle cracked all his bones and looked ahead. The Knights paused as they saw Milly's appearance. Tolle understood their shock. Milly was still adorned in her Shadowguard disguise, giving them the impression that Kage was still there. After all, throughout this battle, Tolle did assume the mantle of the 'official Kage', and all knights thought that he was the real Kage. Now, they're not so sure anymore.
Tolle chuckled sinisterly to scare them off. And it worked like wonders. "Surprised? Scared? You all should be." Tolle painfully looked up to his girlfriend and gave her a thumb up. First, he took off all his weight suits: the headgear, the leg guard, and the vest too; and then he picked up his Skygraspers stuck in the rubble nearby and stood ready. The Shadowguard etched one sword at the left side of the crack, and etched another on the other side. 'The distance is just right…' He raised his hands in a challenge. "No one will get through the range of my swords. No one crosses this line." And before him, the whole Zaft army looked at him, ready to answer the challenge.
The knights roared and charged ahead. The first knight raised his sword before Tolle. But Tolle quickly grabbed one of his swords and slashed his belly. Another came directly behind the first, and Tolle stab his second sword to his gut. A knight slide down, trying to claim his leg, but Tolle jumped and nailed the knight by his hand with one sword before piercing his head with another. The fourth knight, this time wielding a spear, jumped up and tried to stab him through. Tolle thrust his sword forward, flicked his finger, and the handle suddenly extended, turning the sword into a spear that instantly gut the airborne knight by his throat. Bathing Tolle in blood as the red liquid gushed out of the knight's throat, his corpse hanging by the Shadowguards' Lancesword. "I'll say it again." Tolle growled as the corpses of the first three knights fell lifelessly around him.
He swings his Lancesword and threw the corpse away and menacingly pointed the blood dripping Skygrasper to the terrified knights. "No. One. Crosses. THIS. LINE!"
And the knights began to think this boy really can do it. One of the knights start laughing. "Hah! For a natural you talk big! Fine, so we can't get through you, we'll just FLY over you!" And then, just like he said, the knight began to sprout wings.
"Zoan type… Avian Class, Vulture?" Tolle frowned.
The half man half vulture had just ascended to the air, when he was instantly shot down by an arrow to his head and fell dead to the ground. The knights looked with horror and saw the feminine Kage was readying yet another arrow. "Fly again. Please help me, FLY. AGAIN." Behind her, the archer teams had also regained their bearings and prepared their arrows, preparing to shoot down any aerial units. The knights quickly charged towards Tolle, intending to gang up on him. Until suddenly, another Kage appeared, quickly finishing a seal, the ninja sprayed a fresh stream of fire that incinerated everyone within range. The knights gasped and paused as three of their brethren were screaming as they were burned to death.
Tolle looked at the fire breathing Kage, he was bespectacled and wielding a spear and stood next to Tolle. "Still alive here…" Sai smirked as his lips still spew some sparks.
Just the three of them currently defending the pathway against a whole army. The knights cried and charged again. Tolle and Sai roared as they clashed. Tolle is the main attacker, decimating everyone at close to mid range, thanks to his Skygraspers. Sai is on support and stab through mid range distance, whittling away the enemy, reducing incoming foes while covering Tolle's blind side. Milly also on support, but she focused on long range, together with her team of archers. The combination of the three Shadowguards proved to be overwhelming, and before long, the pathway was covered with piling dead bodies of the Knights who fell under their arms.
The Knights gaped. Three warriors all dressed up as Kage. All possess the same skills as Kage (at least, that's what they thought). But, they're just THREE people! Heck! They're THREE KIDS! In terms of armament, skills, experience, they, the proud knights of Zaft should come ahead. 45,000 knights getting beat up by 3? They'll be the laughing stock of all warriors in the history!
"The corridor nullifies our number. All the thousands we have were funneled into that narrow opening." Raww, from the distance understood the situation with a glance. "Those three Kage-lookalikes, each was armed with the perfect weapon to guard that opening. The one with the spear to cover mid range, the main attacker, with that variably changing Lancesword to cover melee… and the one at the vantage point to shoot all attackers from distance. And let's not forget the fear. No one has the stomach to fight a Blacklist warrior with a 300,000,000 bounty. Even though they are fakes… Especially fakes who are as powerful as the original." More and more Raww felt admiration towards these shadow warriors… as well as their master. "Impressive don't you think?" Raww turned to Ignis, only to find the said knight is on the run.
Courtney quickly yelled. "STOP HIM!"
But it was too late. The fake Ignis had ridden into the darkness of the woods. Nichol, who stood ready in the rear just in case something like this happened. He raised his fist and ready for a strike, but then their eyes met, and Nichol stopped dead in shock. And thus the Fake Ignis passed him undisturbed.
Nichol gasped and looked at Ignis speeding back while Courtney ran to him, barking angrily. "What's the matter with you? You let him get away!"
"I… I…" Nichol didn't know what to say.
Back to the destroyed walls, the attacks began to increase in intensity. Tolle and Sai had killed so many knights; they began fighting on a higher ground formed by all the piled dead. But they are still teenagers, and slowly but sure, they're stamina began to fail them. Sai fell first to his knees. Tolle tried to defend him but a spear stab through his shoulder. "EAAAARGH!" Milly quickly shoot the stabber dead, but then, her soldiers came with a bad news: "This is the last of our arrows, ma'am!" And they shoved the last 20 normal arrows and 10 explosive arrows to Milly's holster. Milly looked questioningly at their empty holsters. "And you guys?"
The soldiers smiled to one another, grabbed a spear and jumped towards the knights, spear first. Some of them died, skewered before they landed, some managed to take out their target, and others just crashed over their shield, stammered and then joined the Shadowguards in defense of the opening or getting killed anyway. As just it happened, more and more soldiers poured in to aid the Shadowguards in defense. The knights charged forward, and the soldiers stand their ground. Just as Raww had expected, the great numbers of the knights mean nothing, and the soldiers gang up upon them one by one. But there are still casualties.
But then, one by one, the existing Juppongatana, then the Shiseiken, and then Murrue and Natarle… all joined the defense… the very last defense. But the worst (at least for the Zaft knights) came in form of a recovered Fuji, a part of his facial skin seem melted due to his previous severe burns by Hellfire. It made his visage all the more monstrous. He used a shattered pillar as a bashing club and smashed several dozen knights flat. At this point the opening had become impenetrable.
The knights tried to get to the other points of entry. Noticing this, Prayer yelled the Juppongatanas to move to another location and spread out. The knights have lost the momentum gained by the explosion. The Juppongatana and all seated officers moved and guarded strategic points of the fortress, leaving Fuji and sufficient soldier to guard the opening. The Shadowguards became a mobile unit: they are to reinforce any strategic points which require aid. The Knights now only have their numbers to rely upon. But the fact is: the Zaft forces cannot even get through into the Fortress grounds. Even with such a huge opening, they made no progress whatsoever. And so the battle raged on and on, until every hall within the walls is filled with corpses: Alliance and Zaft, the opening, which was once littered with rubbles, are now bleached with red, arrows, and covered in dead bodies from either side-mostly from Zaft.
It was midnight… and then…
"ENOUGH!" A voice echoed. It was as if every wall screamed and magnified Raww's yell into every soldier and knight's heads. "ENOUGH OF THIS! ALL KNIGHTS, FALL BACK. ENOUGH BLOOD HAVE BEEN SPILLED TONIGHT." The battle stopped. Every soldier and knight in the fortress stood still and listens. They were made to listen to Raww's booming voices in their heads. "NOW KNOW THIS, SOLDIERS OF THE ALLIANCE OF THE 7TH DIVISION. YOU'VE FOUGHT GALLANTLY. YOU'VE SHAMED ALL THOSE WHO ONCE LOOKED DOWN UPON YOU. TRULY YOU ARE THE FINEST OF THE ALLIANCE WARRIORS. I REQUEST A PARLEY WITH YOUR COMMANDING OFFICERS, TOMORROW MORNING."
The soldiers looked at each other. Tolle grabbed hold of his head while supporting himself on rubble. The booming sound is hurting his head. Milly breathe heavily, tired as hell, but the girl can still perceive the words. Sai had to hold on to his spear for support as it is the only thing that can keep him standing.
"IN THE MEAN TIME, I ORDER MY KNIGHTS INTO A CEASEFIRE. LET THERE BE NO MORE LUST FOR BLOOD… FROM EITHER OF US." Raww was also weary of the new 7th division's frequent use of night raids and surprise attacks, which is, as he had to grudgingly admit, frighteningly effective. "DISPOSE OF YOUR FALLEN ONES WITH DIGNITY. YOU ALL HAVE EARNED THE RIGHT. REMEMBER. TOMORROW MORNING."
And then silence. The Knights looked awkwardly at their enemies, who they were ordered not to kill just now. They looked at each other, and finally, all knights retreated in an orderly fashion.
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It is now past midnight, and yet not one soldier in the Archangel Fortress rest or sleep. As soon as they went into melee with the Zaft knights, their casualties rose to terrifying level. They lost more men tonight than they did in the last 3 days. The 1500 soldiers were reduced to 1000. And these 1000 were wounded, weary, and just tired.
The fortress is completely in ruins. Forget the fact that only one side of wall was broken through, the Archangel Fortress is just beyond fixing at this point. 60 percent of all its structures had been demolished, the walls' internals had so many holes and cracks, and it already resembles Swiss cheese. The Fortress ground is in shambles, as every inch of it is completely littered in rubbles, no longer fit to serve as a military base. All their cannons still function, and they haven't used it once. Then again, they can only use it once.
The seated officers are now gathering together in what might be their final meeting.
"So… it finally happened." Urabe started.
"Just as Kage had foreseen. The wall is breached." Karren mourned.
"Then it is time. Sai-san. What is…Kage's last strategy that he set up for this?" Chiba looked at the bespectacled Shadowguard, as did everyone.
Sai gulped and with trembling hand, he pulled out the last letter. "Gather the men… somewhere out of the earshot. For this final letter, Kage instructed… that everyone should hear it in private. In this case… he's referring to ALL military personnel only."
And so everyone was called. Every soldier, every person who bear arms. Everyone was gathered at what once the fortress mess hall… though right now it's a room filled with ruins and rocks. Sai stood on the biggest rock, making it a makeshift pedestal. With the fortress in total silence, Sai's words seem magnified and can be heard by everyone in the hall.
"…By now… if you're listening to this letter, then I believe that the Walls of Archangel has been breached, and I haven't returned. Either because I'm dead, or late." Sai began to read the letter aloud. "If that happens, my prediction, you've lost about one third of our current standing forces at this point." The soldiers nodded one another in agreement. "Even if that was not the case, with the destruction of the Walls of Archangel, this fortress can no longer protect you. It takes many men, and longer time to rebuild everything. Time that we simply do not have. If the Zaft knights defeated you all and take over the fortress, I believe that taking it under new management instead of reducing everything to rubble is exactly what they had in mind. After all, Archangel is the only contestable foothold in Orb territory. Even in ruins, this fortress still holds some measure of strategic value. That is too big of a prize for a commander like Raww le Klueze to miss."
Neil blurted. "Wait a sec… How did he know the enemy is Raww?"
"Ssshhh!" Prayer shushed him.
"Gentlemen, we only have one option: we must destroy this fortress." At this, murmurs arise among the soldiers. "I understand if some of you feel like you're destroying a place that holds many sentimental values to you. I cannot imagine… nay… I DARE not imagine how you feel, if I order you to destroy this place. A place, I believe, many of you considered to be your home." The soldiers head tilted down, nodding in agreement. "…but… choose this: would you rather see your home in ruins… or would you rather see it in the enemy's hands? Worse, would you bear to see that your home will be used to serve purposes that set its will against you?"
The soldiers again looked at each other, contemplating Kage's words. "And so… here's my third strategy. We will destroy this fortress. I told Murdoch to place a series of explosions at critical structures around the fortress… I trust by now, he's already done with the task." Now, all eyes turned to Murdoch, who had severe eye bags underneath his eyes. "Yeah! I'm done! Damn you!"The mechanic curses to no one in particular but an imaginary captain. Sai continued. "And here's how we're going to do it. How we must do it." At this, Sai gulped nervously. Oh, they're not gonna like this…
"We can evacuate the base. The ships we currently have should be able to penetrate the blockade. After all, we used only one ship to loot five of their ship. I believe we can bust our way through, I believe we should… now… the problem is… As you are aware, we've gathered quite a lot of refugees. And we cannot bring them all with us; the ships just don't have the capacity." Now everyone perked and looked at the Shadowguard holding the letter with trembling hands. "So… I can only think of one option, and I will make this an order: Arm these refugees. Dress them up, give them armor. Make them passable as one of us. And then have them fight together with us. But only enough to reel them in… after which, we can all evacuate, leave the 'rest' behind. Let them fight on; even though they may not be much of a fight… they should be able to draw the knights in and then set off the explosion that will destroy everyone inside. That way we'll destroy a greater part of the enemy's forces, dealing them a really big damage along the way, and we'll also deny the enemy the use of this fortress."
By this time, everyone in the fortress speechlessly looked at Sai with disbelief. Was that… was that really Kage's orders? Did he just… Did he just order them to… to…!
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" One of the soldiers suddenly roared. "OI! FOUR EYES! YOU DIDN'T JUST MAKE THAT UP, DIDN'T YOU?"
Sai closed his eyes and shook his head. No. He's not joking. Sai continued to read the letter. It seems Kage had even predicted the possible response that the soldiers may came up with and prepared a reply of his own. "I figured some of you will be protesting. Then let me ask you this: even if you sacrificed yourself and gave them your boats to escape… let me remind you that there's still the naval blockade. The only ones who can operate the battleships so that they may have some chance to pass the blockade is if these ships were operated by men with military training and experiences… such as yourselves. If we simply send these refugees away aboard the ships as it is… it'll be like sending lambs to slaughterhouse. Better they die to serve some purpose, let them die with honor taking at least 10 knights with them. Let them die as wolves instead of sheep."
Sai gulped, he dare not to continue reading. Tolle knew there's more. "Finish it, Sai. They need to know."
The bespectacled boy gritted his teeth and continued reading, but now he's stuttering, rather badly. "P…P-P.s.: naturally, we must not tell the refugees about this. So keep your silence. Shadowguards… I'm giving you a direct order: ensure the silence of everyone… w-w-with any means… n-necessary." Which translates crudely: if they talk to anyone, kill 'em.
And Sai put down the letter, signifying that was the end of the message. The soldiers were left completely flabbergasted. The silence is terrifying as all their faces were completely pale with fright. The second plan demanded them to dig out the rotten bodies of their dead comrades to be used for the disease ploy. That was already one thing… but this is… this is a whole new level of cruel.
"He saved them… kept them alive so that they can die at the proper moment?" One of the soldiers glared at Sai. His voice trembling in anger. "He's been keeping them like cattle waiting to be slaughtered?"
Sai bowed his head down. "This is an order from Cap-"
"I DON'T CARE!" The soldier roared. "I ATE, LAUGHED, AND CRIED WITH THESE PEOPLE! I will not obey that order no matter what!"
"That's treason!" Balsam yelled.
The soldier angrily looked at the former Juppongatana. "He talked to us about passion and all that BULLSHIT… and then he LIED to us… went against everything he told us?"
"It's still treason." Balsam continued. "You're disobeying a direct order from a commanding officer. You know the penalty for that!"
The penalty is death. Just like the penalty for disobeying Kage's order of banning the Punishment Logue.
Prayer gritted his teeth and decided to cut this discussion short: "ENOUGH!" He looked at the window, the first sunlight burst out as morning come. "We'll talk about this later. And Balsam… last I remembered: Kage left ME as acting Captain, not you." And then, to the shocked eyes of everyone, Prayer performed a Shunshin no jutsu and appeared right in front of Balsam before choking him by the neck. "…and you would be wise… to remember that!" Prayer threw the man to the dirt, signifying the meeting is adjourned.
Unknown to everyone, a pair of horrified blue eyes who was secretly eavesdropping at the meeting from a small crack scurried away in terror.
0000000000000000
That morning, the whole tens of thousands of the Zaft army of Knights appeared out of the forest. Even with yesterday losses there are still so many of them, and their military condition is far from weak. The forces of Archangel are vastly outnumbered. The sight was enough to unnerve every soldier in the ruined fortress. The sun also made the pathetic state of their once mighty fortress all the clearer. So fragile, so tattered, ready to collapse in one fell swoop. It's battered and damaged walls were crumbling and falling apart even as they looked upon them.
Just in front of his army, Raww was already waiting, together with Courtney and Nichol, under a large small open sunscreen, held by 4 knights.
And then, from the distance, they saw Prayer, Murrue, and Murdoch approaching them. The few remaining soldiers of the Alliance waited at the ruins of their fortress, observing the meeting. All their eyes can pretty much see what's happening there.
And finally, the two parties began their meeting. Or… no… not just yet…
"Well… I suppose introduction is in order…" Raww began the parley. "This is Courtney Hieronymus, Forge Corps Centurion. And this is Nichol Amarfi, Wood Knight."
Prayer also introduced themselves: "I'm Prayer Reverie. Currently the acting Captain of the 7th division. This is Murrue Ramias, Captain of the 12th division, and this is Kojiro Murdoch, Lieutenant of the 9th division."
Raww seem to be expecting someone else though. "Where are they?"
Prayer frowned. "I beg your pardon?"
"The bold children… the magnificent Shadows… ones who were called, from what my men had heard, Shadowguards… I believe?" Raww smiled kindly. "I would very much like to meet them as well."
"Is it not enough that three seated officers came to your parley?"
Raww shook his head as he chuckled. "You and I knew, Prayer-kun; if it weren't for their effort… there won't be a parley. Three brave warriors who had made my men paid every inch we gained into this fortress with their blood. They are essential, nay, they are compulsory for this meeting to go anywhere."
Prayer looked at Murrue and Murdoch, but both simply nodded. Prayer turned to the fortress and gave a sign. And then, three black clad figures instantly flickered in right beneath the tent and joined the parley. Nichol and Courtney were surprised when they saw three unnerving figures just appeared out of thin air. Even more unnerving, all of them were dressed in the garments of Kage, minus the headband. The knights behind them also saw the Shadowguards and cringed; they still remember just how much horror these three warriors had given them.
Raww bowed down politely before the three Ninjas. "It is an honor to meet you, Shadowguards. I wish I can ask for names… but I suppose that was a bit too much?"
"Only Kage has the right." Tolle replied. So the masked knight already knew that none of them are the real Kage. Fine. But he will not give him anymore info than that.
Raww merely smiled understandingly at the hostile tone. "I do so admire loyalty." Raww bowed in respect. The Shadowguards felt somewhat awkward. He was supposed to be their enemy, and yet he's speaking as if they were his guests of honor. "Now… I will go straight to the point: will you yield the fortress?"
"No. Before you take it, we will destroy it. Every building, every stone. We'll burn it all to the ground!" Prayer made his point clear. Kage was right about one thing: better this fortress in ruins rather than at the hands of their enemies. Kage has proven that with the right management, this fortress was able to ensure 1500 men survived against an army of 100,000 for this long. That power is too valuable of a military asset to be given up to their enemies.
Raww looked at Prayer, and then the others. None of them had any intention to object this. They must've talked about this earlier, and agreed to it. "You will destroy it?"
"Every stone. And every soldier you kill will take 10 Zaft knights with them. I swear to God, to take this fortress will be the death of you. We will destroy your army here, dealing Zaft Empire an even bigger blow than we already did."
"Oh, your Captain had already done a terrifyingly magnificent job ensuring that, I assure you." Raww chuckled. "In just the last few days alone, he killed as many people as a plague would… I don't think we've ever seen a headcount this high in so short of time ever since the 14th February, 72 odd years ago."
The Shadowguards looked at each other.
"Kage IS the Captain of the 7th division yes?" Raww tilted his head, as if asking for confirmation. "At least… that's what I thought… when I saw this." Raww unraveled the package that the fake Ignis had given him. It did give the effect that he had hoped for.
Kage's one-of-a-kind black captain's vest. Only, it's in tatters, with dried blood stains here and there.
Everyone from the Alliance gasped and their eyes widened in horror. Prayer took the coat and looked at it. It is a genuine Captain's coat. Every detail matched. Even the small white, upside down, kanji of seven at the collar. Murrue and Murdoch gaped in horror. But none of them were as devastated as the Shadowguards. Tolle quickly took the coat from Prayer, held it in his hands and collapsed to his knees, mourning. Milly closed her mouth while Sai closed his eyes, holding back tears. The Alliance officers stood silent, mourning their fallen captain, and Raww choose to hold his tongue, giving them all a moment for pity's sake. The soldiers in the fortress who saw one of the Shadowguards collapsed to his knees realized something bad had happened.
"You have my sincerest condolences." Raww bowed in genuine sympathy. "I wasn't there myself… but I heard that he fell honorably. Fighting to defend and protect his men, to the last. As a captain should. I wish… I can bring you his body, so that you can bury him with dignity… he's done that to Veia… and he deserve to be treated equally. Alas… I was told that his body had been so horribly mutilated… it's already beyond recognition and salvage."
The Shadowguards looked at Raww again. In particular, the one holding the coat, his eyes remain deviant. "Get to the point."
Raww obliged. "Your fortress, as I understand it, is full of not only soldiers. There are also woman, children, the elderly and the sickly, and the dying. I had no wish for them to die. There are rules of war, and we abide by them."
"I wonder did you abide by them when you burn Amaterasu to the ground." The bespectacled Shadowguard spoke. "I wonder if those Bladebanes who butchered village after village on their way here abide by any rules at all!" Sai's tone increased in intensity, following his rising temper. "You guys spoke of honor and chivalry ever so glowingly and yet you break those so called code of honor when it suits you!"
"I'm not those men." Raww answered simply. "Neither are these knights." He waved his hand to gesture the large army of knights behind him. "You've fought bravely. And by God how you have fought. Look at them. They were bloodthirsty glory hound when they first came here. They thought they can sack your fortress in a day, and then you've given them so much Hell in just a few days, now they want nothing more but to go home to their wives. If it's recognition or infamy you seek, then you certainly had gained them."
"It's not about recognition or infamy; it's about doing what's right." This time, the Female Shadowguard responded. "We saw how your soldiers raid and pillage and plunder so callously. If we don't fight back, these civilians you've forcibly put under our protection will pay the price. You think we can just stand by, waiting and watching that happen?"
"So she says." Prayer confirmed. "Offer your terms. We'll listen then we'll give you our answer."
"I wish you to think rationally for one moment and consider my offer. Better yet, think for the good of these people you're protecting, and consider their wellbeing. I will give safe conduct, not only to these civilians… but also to every soul willing to lay down their arms and surrender. All shall be escorted to the sea, to their homes. To those who remain adamant to fight though… we shall give no quarter."
"Never got one, anyway." Murdoch growled almost lazily. But everyone knew he was serious.
Raww sighed exasperatedly. "Listen to reason. Your Captain has fallen. He may have aided you by leaving behind gifts of intelligence… but there's only so much help a man can give you from beyond the grave."
"So what of it?" Tolle hissed. "People die every day. We've lost Captain Harlbarton, and now we've lost Kage too. But that doesn't mean we'll stop fighting." The Shadowguard rose and menacingly shoved Kage's captain's coat before Raww as a challenge. "Even beyond the grave, Captain Kage is not someone you can outthink. Come and take the fortress if you dare!" With that, the three Shadowguards took Kage's coat and disappeared with a puff of smoke. End of discussion, to the anger of Nichol and Courtney.
Prayer sighed. Now he kinda understands why Kira made him acting captain instead of Tolle, despite their obviously close friendship. The Shadowguards are still temperamental, reckless, and often let their emotions get the better of them. "The Shadowguards may be skillful. But as you can see… they're quite emotional."
"Indeed they are. I take it they never engage in this sort of parley." Raww chuckled. To walk away from a parley before it was ended, no matter how angry you are, is a breach of protocol and normally would've constituted an act of war. "But I get the feeling that to them, this is more than just loyalty to their master."
"Worse than that actually." Prayer glared. "Before Kage… one of your attacks killed a Shadowguard. A close friend of theirs. And they're big on friends. So as you can see… they're pissed."
Raww gasped in surprise and bowed apologetically. "I've made a mistake, asking them to join this parley when anger still clouding their hearts. Tell you what; I will give you some more time. This afternoon, perhaps? Another parley?"
"You do like these intimidative negotiation didn't you? Lining up all those thousands knights in front of us as you try to force us to surrender." Murrue gazed upon the enemy army behind Raww. Tens of Thousands of them. A thousand soldiers. The odds were obvious.
"Milady, I prefer the word 'convince' rather than 'force'. Regardless, I'm guilty as charged. But I will endure it. For I'd rather live with men, than kill them." Raww bowed again, signaling the end of the powwow and the two groups part away, returning to their respective armies.
As Raww and his retinues returned to their knights, Nichol frowned. "My Lord, you really think they'll surrender?"
"The Shadowguards? Nay. But their men are a different story. If they see the tattered remains of Kage's coat, their morale will be devastated. I doubt even half of the soldiers in that fortress had a strong loyalty to the Captain."
"But we don't even know if Kage is truly dead." Courtney pointed out.
"But his army… will be no more." Raww is trying to destroy Kage's army's morale. That way, even if Kage did return, there won't be much left of his army. Better to deal with one man army… rather than one man army with an army.
0000000000000000
The soldiers of the Alliance's morale collapsed completely to despair when they saw Kage's coat in Tolle's hand. Some even cried and gnashed their teeth. Wailing, weeping… all mourned their lost captain.
"It's over…" One of the soldiers moaned. "There's no more hope for us…!"
"No it's not." Another soldier argued.
"YES IT IS!" The first soldier retorted back. "Even the Juppongatana are tired already, there's so few of us left!"
"But we can't surrender!"
"Then what are you suggesting that we do?"
"It's not over." Another soldier entered the argument. "Kage still left us with the final strategy."
"OUT OF THE QUESTION!" And the fourth soldier roared. "Kage may be a great captain and he did help us. But what he's asking is to sacrifice innocent civilians!"
"We can't protect everything! These civilians are excess cargo!"
"Does that mean they're not human?"
"They'll be better off doing us some service in death then get butchered in vain!"
"We're not gonna be talking about this!"
"WHY AREN'T WE TALKING ABOUT THIS?"
"Then we better surrender! They'll butcher us all! He already promised that he'll let us all go-"
"Don't you dare to even SAY the word!"
The soldiers began to panic as they continue to argue and fight amongst themselves.
"ENOUGH!" Prayer roared before things get out of hand. His surprisingly loud voice stopped all arguments short and all eyes turned on him. "…I've been in this kind of situation before. If you guys surrender… Raww will have you all executed."
Everyone paled. "Bullshit!" One of the soldier spurted.
Prayer's eyes darkened. And then, to the surprise of everyone, he start taking off his upper clothes. When the clothes were removed, some of the soldiers vomited when they saw the enormous number of horrid scars strewn across every inch of Prayer's skin. "I got this from my time in Endiminion. When I served under my brother in the 9th division, Raww lulled many soldiers with enticement of survival through surrendering… after which he stretched their necks and behead them all, one by one." All those soldiers who initially advocated surrender fell to their knees in pure horror. Prayer concluded: "There's no surrendering with this guy, even when he promised you otherwise."
"Then there's nothing to it! We fight!"
"But even if we did fight, what then? When we die, they'll kill them anyway!"
"Wait, wait! Raww said that he'll give the refugees safe passage. We should first take him up on that offer!"
"Have you heard nothing that Prayer said? Raww won't give them mercy, he'll kill them all! They'll just die in vain!"
"Quiet!" Neil suddenly noticed something and ordered the soldiers to shut up. Alas, the soldiers grew more panicked and start yelling louder.
"We can just tell them to fight! We don't need to tell them about the explosives or anything-"
"You wanna use them as bait!"
"What other purpose they can serve! Besides, Kage also suggested it!"
"QUIET!" Neil angrily yelled. Everyone stopped. The Sniper rushed into a corner and pulled out the eavesdropper. To everyone's horror… it was Fllay… and several others. And then, as Neil further revealed… most of the civilians that were supposed to be in the bunker were there too, hiding behind the rubbles and ruins, listening the soldiers discussing about using them as meat shield and bait, and worse: they also heard the part that it was under Kage's orders.
"Oi… what did you just say?" One of the shocked refugees, a woman holding her child, a mother muttered in disbelief. "It's a lie right…? They've saved us… they won't sacrifice us… right…?" Her voice breaking up as tears swelling in her eyes.
The soldiers, horrified and exposed, couldn't answer.
The mother shook her head muttering "No… no…"
"Y…You just said… that you're going to sacrifice us? S… So what the girl said was TRUE!" Another refugee angrily yelled.
"Girl?" Sai quickly catch up. He looked horrifyingly at his red haired fiancée. "Fllay…!"
Taking the soldiers' silence as a confirmation, the refugees grew more restless and terrified. They began to pull back and distance themselves from the soldiers. Their faces showed horror, anger, and above all, betrayed. The mother hadn't moved from her spot and she's on her knees, completely terrified, not for herself… but for the child in her hands. One of the soldiers who against the plan approached her and knelt next to her, trying to comfort her, but the mother pulled her son out of his reach.
"Tell her." Neil looked at Prayer. That was an order, not a suggestion. "Tell everyone the truth."
Prayer nodded, took a deep breath, and began explaining. "Right now… outside, there's an army of elite Zaft knights… and we're outnumbered about… 30 to 1… maybe 40 to 1. Surrender is not an option. I know this from experience. Escape is the only solution… but we have only 2 battleships, a couple of small ships… and it's not enough to carry us all. Worse, a massive Naval blockade consist of hundreds of ships is on stand by at the ocean, there's no way we can pass through them without a fight." Prayer paused, taking a few more breaths and continued. "We have a plan to continue fighting as we draw them all in. And then, if things turn for the worst…" Prayer gritted his teeth as he remembered the tattered coat of Kage. "…which they have… we will blow up this fortress, taking us and them with it. The question is… we need to decide who's going to stay here and hold them off, and who's gonna try to take their chance and escape through the sea." Prayer slightly altered the message. Clearly he isn't about to tell the already panic stricken refugees that Kage expressly told them to use the refugees as meatshield.
"W… Why didn't you guys just surrender?"
"We would've, if only to ensure your safety." Prayer was referring to the refugees. If they don't have any refugees to protect, they would've unanimously decided to fight to the last man. But if they die, who's going to protect the refugees? Hence the conflict. "But like I've said before… I knew from experience: there's no surrendering with this enemy. He'll kill us given the chance."
The refugees looked at each other in despair.
"Then you only have ONE option." Smirking, Balsam suddenly stated. "You ALL have to fight."
Everyone looked at the former Juppongatana. Prayer mood quickly turned for the worse. "What is this Balsam? Another one of your cons?"
"Cons? No. No such thing. But think about this. Kage had let in a lot of refugees. Almost enough to equal our number if only in quantity. From one point view, they are burden… but from a different point of view… I'm seeing reinforcements." Balsam waved his hands towards the refugees. They perked up upon hearing the word. "If you must choose: just stand down and wait as they slaughter you, your family, all that you care about… or are you going to stand up and fight."
Prayer open his mouth trying to retort, but he realized he couldn't come up with a good response either. He looked at the refugees, waiting their response.
They all looked at each other, and then, one of the refugees looked around and found a beat up spear stuck on the rubble. He approached it and pulled it out after some struggle. He brandished it but then, one of the soldiers stood in his way. "To hell with that. You're not doing this."
"What other options do we have? We have to fight! That's all we can do!" The man pointed the makeshift spear with trembling hands.
"Put it down before you hurt someone." The soldier approached the man calmly.
"No! Y… You think I'm just gonna stand silent while remain at the mercy of a madman…! I… I…"
The soldier approached the man menacingly. The closer he gets, the more terrified the man becomes. "Stand back… STAND BACK!" In his panic, the man swing and stab the spear wildly, and suddenly, the spear found its way to the soldier's belly. Blood trickled out of the stab wound. The man gasped in horror. He didn't mean for that to happen.
Groaning in pain, the soldier pulled out the spear, and the blood splatter out. Fortunately, it's just a swallow flesh wound. The soldier glared at the civilian who had gut him and knocked him down with a light slap. In an instant, the man cowered in fear and dropped his spear; all bravado went out of the window. "You don't want to die, but you don't know how to take a life. Not the same way we do. Don't touch that thing again, that's what you should've done." The soldier took the spear and then stood before the refugees and declared: "I don't care what Kage says. We let these people in, by God, we had to make sure they get out the same way they came in: alive."
"And how exactly are you going to do that? You've disobeyed Kage's direct order already."
"SHUT UP! And who are you to give me orders? You're just a Juppongatana dropout!" The soldier roared again. And this one did struck a nerve on Balsam. The man's look darkened with rage.
"You… you dare… insult me…?" Balsam suddenly burst forward and he was already right in front of the shocked soldier. Before the soldier can react, Balsam slapped him hard on the face until he fell to the ground. Still enraged, Balsam began stomping the man's head several times. "You… lowly… militia soldier… dare to mock ME!" Finally he stepped on the man's head and pressed it hard. "You glorified militia should just shut up and-"
Balsam's comment was cut short as soon as Tolle slammed a Konoha senpuu on his head. "And you are a glorified pain in the ass!" The Shadowguard then turned to the soldier. "…you serious?"
"…W…what?" The soldier was still slightly rattled after the stomping.
"As much as what he said was pure bullshit… the little bit of truth is… you're disobeying a direct order from Kage. That's an offense warrant an execution. You really serious?"
"I'll say it… as many times as I have to… I will NOT abandon them. I will fight and protect them. I will die. I will try to save at least one of them, if that is all I can do."
"But what you're saying is suicide. And you'll die in vain. And when you die, they'll still die anyway."
"But that doesn't mean that I will give up. I WILL never give up. What about you? You stood your ground against tens of thousands of Zaft knights and lived to tell the tale… why would a guy as strong as you give up now?"
"I'm not strong. Not as strong as I should have. And this has nothing to do with strength. This is an ORDER." Tolle pointed his Lancesword at the soldier. "We the Shadowguards are ordered to ensure that the last order is enforced. By any means necessary. You heard it yourself."
"Then I will fight you too." The Soldier replied without hesitation. "I will fight you, Kage, and anyone who dare to lay a hand on these people."
Tolle's eyes widened, for a moment, the man's resolution made him faltered a bit, but then he strengthened his own resolve, and gave a light stab on the man's shoulder. "That's treason, you know."
"I don't care."
"Tolle!" Milly suddenly exclaimed.
That's when Tolle realized, he felt hostility being directed towards him. The Shadowguard turned around and suddenly saw every soldier was glaring at him angrily. Some even pointed their spear at him. "And what are you guys up to?"
"What does it look like we're doing? You get away from him now!" One of the soldiers yelled.
"And stay away from those refugees!" The other followed.
Tolle was undaunted. But here it is: the moment of truth. "You guys serious? Kage's plan is the only chance we got. There are more than 40,000 of Zaft knights out there. You're all wounded, weary and lean! We can't pierce that number with what we have! To charge out will be suicide!"
"If we are going to die… If we must die… let it be like this. At least we'll die to save something!" And that was the last straw. Every soldier in that fortress was resolute. They are all ready to die. And for a noble cause.
That was all the proof Tolle need. He chuckled and put back his Skygrasper back in its sheath. "Sigh… Someone… get a medic and get this guy treated."
The soldiers blinked. They all looked at the Shadowguards, and then they realized that this Shadowguard was also at their side and against Kage's horrifying plan. Several soldiers quickly run towards the wounded soldier and gave him first aid treatment. The Soldiers looked at the other Shadowguards, and by the look on their relieved faces, it seems they too were glad things turned out this way. "We never agreed with that portion of the plan anyway… it's too… heartless."
The soldiers smiled at each other, glad that at least Kage's guards weren't as ruthless as their master. "But… how are we going to rescue them?" Karren pointed out.
"We fight. All of us charge out, the refugees at the back, following. We pierce and cut a bloody path across that army with our lives with necessary and the refugees may be able to escape during all the carnage. How's that for a plan?" Neil suggested. It was suicidal… and there's no other alternative besides that.
"There's no need for that." Prayer smirked.
"Eh?"
"We already have a contingency plan for this."
"Contingency… plan?" Now all Juppongatana and seated officers looked at the smiling Prayer. His smile… is weird: a mixture between mischief, relief, and confidence.
"It's afternoon… Raww's back for another parley." Urabe gazed upon the familiar figure at the distance.
"Right… let's put an end to this farce…" Prayer, in an unnaturally relaxed stance, walked out of the ruined walls and went alone to meet Raww and his generals. This awkwardly happy atmosphere around Prayer left many of the senior officers (Zaft and Alliance) dumbfounded.
Soon, Prayer stood alone before Raww, Nichol and Courtney, who was quick to note the boy's confident posture.
"And what put you in such a good mood, Prayer?" Raww started.
"The soldiers just unanimously agreed…" Prayer smiled as he ended all negotiation short: "Sorry, we'll fight to the death and take you all with us while we're at it."
"And… the refugees?"
"Just try to hurt one strand of their hair, and we'll butcher you." Prayer glared back, still with the smile.
"So… you refuse to listen to reason, and choose oblivion?"
"Yes. Yours." Prayer gave the signal…
And all the sudden, the four tent carriers pull out their swords and pointed it at the Zaft commanding officers. To the shock of everyone present, Alliance and Zaft.
"W… What is the meaning of THIS?" Courtney angrily yelled.
But then, one by one, the tent carriers opened their helmet, revealing their identities: Mwu, Kamina, Toudou, and Setsuna. All the commanding officers who were in charge of the Bladebane raid team. Upon seeing their leaders were taken hostage, the Knights merely readied their weapons, but otherwise unable to take any action.
Nichol gasped. Raww was somewhat alarmed, but remained calm. The Alliance soldiers, upon seeing 4 familiar faces quickly cheered and were overjoyed. The Shiseiken looked happily as they saw their master still alive and safe. The other Juppongatana laughed and cheered upon seeing this unexpected but pleasant surprise.
"My, my… I should've known… Nemesis. How nice to see you." Raww remained calm, despite having Mwu's kodachi by his throat, and still he smiled gently to his nemesis.
"I aim to please." Mwu's grin couldn't get any wider.
Raww chuckled. "Yes. You Shinobis are experts in infiltration. But you don't seriously think of continuing this fight, Nemesis? Even with your skills… just the four of you survivors will not be able to turn the tide… or were you trying to create that miracle you pull off at Endiminion?"
"We make our own miracles today Nemesis." Mwu pull away his kodachi, to the bewilderment of Raww… until suddenly a bone crushing blow landed upon his stomach coming from… to his disbelief, "…C… Courtney?"
Courtney just hit him full with his hammer. Nichol was horrified at the sudden betrayal. But Courtney began to speak… and his voice was breaking. "Before you're wondering… Courtney Hieronymus is still alive." And then his skin start to peel off into smoke while he took off his heavy armor one by one. Once his entire disguise was removed and dispersed to smoke, a black clad teenager with messy brown hair, his face clad in a black mask, and his head bears a metal forehead protector was revealed. "I left him unconscious in the forest, a bit far from where your army currently stationed, in that V shaped opening. I buried him under some leaf and dirt, but other than a bit of a bruised ego… he's otherwise unharmed. Peace of mind."
And an unscathed Kage stood where Courtney once stood. "Ninpou: Henge no Jutsu."
The Zaft knights quickly entered a state of total panic upon recognizing the Black Devil. In stark contrast, the Soldiers of the Alliance were completely dumbstruck at the sight of their Captain had just seemingly rise from the dead. "It's… IT's KAGE! HE'S ALIVE!" All other soldiers within the fortress were bewildered.
Raww gasped upon seeing the Black Devil. What is this? The ability to transform into another person? There's such ability in this world… and wielded by naturals too? But then… "Since… when?"
"Since yesterday night. When that fake Ignis escaped. I took my chance and knocked him unconscious."
"So… So you weren't that fake Ignis?" Indeed, Raww had initially suspected that Ignis was Kage in disguise.
"I admit… initially I planned to impersonate him… but his Logia bloodline limit burn that plan to Hell. I think I would notice when a man had lava for blood, since I'm the one who killed him after all."
Raww's mind began to race. Ignis led 2000 Knights to intercept Kage. But as he found out, Ignis was killed, and there was no sign of his army. Kage's army, under his assumption, was battered during their battle with the Bladebanes… or… are they? "Mind if I ask… how many soldiers did you bring to battle against the Bladebanes?"
"No more than 400 men."
"4… 400!" Nichol gaped.
Raww's mind raced again. Thinking how 400 soldiers could defeat a 100,000 strong army. When he found the answer, he began to see the truth. "…you destroyed that army… by turning them upon each other… and you did it in one night… and you didn't lose a single man… yes?"
While Nichol looked at Raww with horror, Kage nodded and urged the masked commander to go on. "A bit of luck on that one. But yes. Go on."
"I sent Ignis and 2000 knights to intercept you… but they were destroyed instead…" Raww chuckled in realization. "So THAT'S where the 500 men that Toudou brought gone to…"
Kage nodded. "They didn't go anywhere. I asked Asahina, right before he went to Konoha, to bring an order to those 500. I had them infiltrate YOUR army, by disguising themselves with Emerald Knights armor we took during the Battle of Archangel Bay. Those 500 had infiltrated those 2000, and that's how we ambushed them." Who would've thought an ambusher will be ambushed… from the INSIDE?
Raww's mind continues to process the events of how it could lead to this moment. "You've infiltrated us right after you defeated Ignis army… from the very beginning of the siege that night? You infiltrated my army… and you just watched as we raided your fortress… destroying it? No… you did more than just watch… it was you who blow up that wall didn't you?"
"I'll cut to the chase. I've been helping your army in secret."
"What?"
"As you might aware… I left specific instructions to my men, in case they were attacked… but… I think you've already noticed: each order is a double headed sword that was aimed to hurt them as much as they hurt you. The first order which was to use modified explosive arrows. At first, they seem to be brutally effective. But, they burn through the soldier's arrow supply at a frightening rate, exhausting their arrows, diminishing their options to counter attack." Kage explained calmly as Raww's eyes filled with realization.
"The second order… to use… diseased trap to infect us… if it were me… I would've ordered the forest to be burned… that would've maximized the damage to my army, forcing us to retreat, as well as causing even bigger casualties… but… your men didn't follow that order… and instead opted for a third surprise attack… but if they had burned the forest, the Archangel would've lost one of its greatest defense… the forest itself…" Raww quickly caught on to the meaning of the second stratagem… and the true form of this whole… farce.
"Yes. That was a little bit of a… miss… on my part." But Kage doesn't sound angry. Quite the contrary, he was immensely pleased at his 'miss'.
"But WHY? Why would you give an order that put your own men at a disadvantage?" Nichol looked at Kage incredulously. What kind of a captain that would do this to his own men? "You betrayed them? Why?"
"For training." Raww knew the answer right away. Now it all makes sense. "If you'll excuse us, Kage… we would like to withdraw for the day. Rest assured… I think I have a lot of matters to attend to in my army… and the way I see it… so do you."
"Wise choice." Kage nodded in agreement and waved his hand. And all the sudden, from both flanks of the Zaft army, hundreds of Alliance Cavalry, lead by Asahina and Canard, rode out. Judging by their armament, as Raww had noted, they were cavalry archers. Had the Knights tried anything funny, these mounted archers would've riddled them with holes. And after a rainstorm of explosive arrows in the last few days, his knights had enough bad impression of them to last a lifetime and they know better than to try anything funny.
Kage and the commanding officers of the Alliance returned back to the fortress along with the cavalry.
Upon returning to his fortress, Kage was welcomed with silent glare, no cheers or smile. Kage chuckled, as if expecting this cold welcome. "I see. The third order rattled you that much?"
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As Nichol walked with Raww, the young boy continue to asked his curiosity. "I don't understand. You're saying… all this are just… training?"
"Yes. Kage was using US to train his men in real life combat situation. For him… this isn't a battlefield… but a training ground! Training for his soldiers!"
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"YOU LIED TO US?" Kamina couldn't control himself anymore and punched Kage by the face.
"Lying isn't exactly the word…" Kage swept his bruised face. "More like… I withheld information from you all. That doesn't change the fact I deserved that punch."
"Then tell us the truth. NOW!" Neil barked.
"Okay." Kage cleared his throat and begin. "When I first heard about the Bladebane invasion… I knew right away that a second invasion will be launched to make use of my absence, when I had to quell the Bladebanes. If there's any commander smart and bold enough to do this… that would be Raww Le Klueze."
"And why didn't you tell us?" Karren menacingly pointed her clawed arm at their lying Captain.
"Because if I did, then we've lost the true purpose of this farce."
"And the true purpose… is…?" Bushido held his breath.
Kage jabbed to make a point: "TRAINING. Real-life combat training! You think I get where I am today by constantly training in some dojo? No. I gained my strength by being tossed STRAIGHT into battle after battle. The same way I'm doing to you now. Rather than slowly gaining experience through safely regulated simulation, better you get them straight from the real battle! Fight against the worst! Bleed! Scream! Survive! And mature so that you can handle the lesser easier!"
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Nichol was speechless upon hearing Raww's explanation, which eerily resemble Kage's explanation. "And that was not all. This whole accident… was… a re-enactment… nay… an improvement of a precedent event."
"A precedent event? You mean something like this happened before?"
"Why didn't I see this earlier? A captain who left his division for a period of time, only to return and find it in chaos, disorder, and crisis. Kage was reconstructing the events of the Endiminion!" Raww rummaged his hair in frustration, cursing himself for being so blind. "And he's using it to not only to train his men… but also to test their loyalty! How many will desert in his absence? How many will follow his orders when he was not around to enforce it? I think Prayer had a hand in this. But the scariest part… Nichol… the scariest part is that it wasn't just to test the loyalty of his men…"
"What do you mean, my Lord? What else he could gain?"
"Tell me… how did they won the Battle of Archangel Bay?"
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"How did we won the battle of Archangel Bay?" One of the soldiers managed to find his voice again and echoed Kage's question just now.
"Sorry… let me rephrase that… How did Zaft forces lose the battle of Archangel Bay?"
The soldiers looked at each other, think for a moment, found the answer, and then one of them, the one who stood against Kage's orders, answered. "Because you killed Goud Veia. Both questions are the same and the answer is only that one."
"Good answer. But not the right one. I killed Veia. But that's not what I'm trying to tell you. Because Veia was dead, the Zaft forces were routed because their morale was crushed. But it's more than that. To them, Veia was their totempole. Their leader. Their shining hope. They rely on him to lead them, to tell and dictate them on what to do and what not."
All the seated and senior officers' eyes widened in realization.
"They were numerically superior, with superior quality in each individual soldier… so why did they lose? The answer is: over-reliance to commanding officers. I killed their leader and they were soon engulfed in chaos at the mere sight of an empty helmet. Had they go on and fight, victory would've been theirs. But they didn't because their leader was no longer there. And so they lose."
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"If you think about it… the 7th division epitomized the phrase: cut off its head, and the body will die. No other division in the Alliance army is as overly reliant to their commanding Captain as the 7th division. The Captain determines everything: the actions they'll take; the kind of division they'll become… but as the result, the soldiers of the 7th division depend too much on their captains. When the officers were killed or otherwise unavailable, they're like sheep without a shepherd. Harlbarton realized this problem and created the Juppongatana… but Kage decided to take it a step further." Raww smiled nervously. "So he designed this plan, making use of the Bladebane attack as the perfect excuse to leave the Archangel fortress, along with several of their most prominent officers, and then he made use of our arrival to create a situation where his soldier will be faced with overwhelming odds. To train them."
"But… it was quite risky ploy! What if we annihilated his army before he even returned?"
"And that's where the stratagems he left behind… which I assumed there are three of them… played their part."
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"I left you all three strategies for three specific situations. Not only to aid you… but also as a handicap. Think of it like an obstacle course which grew harder and harder. But each strategy was meant to teach you guys something."
"And what are they?" Chiba asked.
"The first strategy… the Explosive arrows. I did order to modify all our arrows with explosive tags… but since that type of arrow is unsalvageable, I reckon they burn our arrow supplies at a frightening rate, yes?" Kage asked Neil, the expert archer.
"Yes." Neil nodded.
"I take it you realize that only when the arrow DID ran out, didn't you?"
"I…" Neil gasped upon the accusation… but then he realized Kage was right. They were all entranced by the power of the explosive arrows; the arrows' incredible effectiveness shown at the first day, the soldiers began to use them at reckless abandon, until they realized its weakness just now.
"I would say that I designed that arrow as a replacement for the Cannons, knowing we have limited ammo… but if you think about it… replace those arrows with cannons… and don't we get the same analogy?"
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"Other than their Captains and officers, there's one more thing the Soldiers of the Alliance greatly rely too much upon… their mighty artillery cannons." Raww paused for a moment and looked back at the Archangel Walls in the distance, specifically the gun ports.
"Well… it's only natural… it's their only edge after all."
"Is it? How many times did they fire their cannons during this whole ordeal? As I recall… they used it only twice. And they didn't fire the Lohengrin, not even ONCE! And yet they managed to kill so many of us… hold us back for days, culling a frightening number of casualties using pure ingenuity." Raww will never forget the glue bomb, the pepper spray, the reverse Whack-a-mole strategy… Since their cannons were out of commission, the soldiers were forced to improvise… to be creative. "Do you see now, Nichol? Kage is trying to teach these soldiers not to rely so much on their precious cannons."
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"Look at yourself… Look again at the things you guys have done. Without ever firing a shot from your precious cannons, you managed to defeat thousands of Knights, defending this fortress for several days, with relatively minimal casualties to our side. You were blinded by the power of these cannons to see your own true worth. THIS is the true purpose of the first strategy." Kage pointed his finger to his shocked soldiers. "To show you all your own TRUE potential. To show you all that you ARE strong! Even without those cannons of yours! Wars are fought with weapons, but they are won by the men who used them! You have the strength; you only need to know what, and how to use it!"
The soldiers looked in awe at the black clad captain. All their lives they were told the 7th division is weak and useless… and now this man came and tell them that they are strong. And they really did it, didn't they? Now all the seated officers began to see. Kage was trying to teach his men to be confident and to believe in their own strength, not the weapons they're using.
"And the second strategy? You have some… underlying motives on that one too?" Karren still remembered the order quite clearly: set a trap, involving the use of shrapnel dipped in the feces and diseased blood of their rotten dead for the doll explosion trap, engage a night raid to draw a portion of the enemy's army into the trap, and burn the forest while they're at it.
"I take it you're the one who voted to have that strategy altered?" Even with the mask, everyone can tell that he was smiling proudly. "Yes. I did order the forest to be burned. But that is the trap. If the first strategy is to show you all your potential, the second strategy is to test you all if you can think far ahead."
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"To be honest with you my lord… I still don't see why the forest had to be burned. The disease affected us all the same, right? I mean… we've lost more than HALF of our troops thanks to that venomous trap."
"The first treatment to diseases is to wash the wounds with water. It's a simple treatment. Not effective, but better than nothing." Raww explained. "If I were Kage, I would've burned this forest to the ground. This will force us to expend all our water to quell the fire. When the trap set off, we won't have enough water to treat them, and we'll be left at the mercy of this disease… by the time we found some measure of help, the damage caused by this disease would've been far more catastrophic. I don't think we'll be able to muster this many knights if his men had followed his orders to the letter, instead of modifying it. But… if my guess is right… Kage was hoping that they would disobey that order."
"Why would he want that?"
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"Had you burned the forest, you've quelled one invasion… but how are you going to deal with the second in the future; and the third, and the fourth, and so on and so forth?" Kage nodded to Karren, congratulating her insight. "Now do you understand? The true goal of the second strategy is to teach you all to think far ahead. Do not blindly follow orders to the letter, pursuing short term victory without regards to its long term view. I want my men to have their own will and their own God damn minds!" Kage pointed at the stunned Karren's forehead. "As for why I didn't tell you, it's the same reason as to why I blew up that wall." Kage pointed at the gaping maw of the Archangel Fortress, while admitting to everyone he had destroyed the walls that protected them, to the obvious shock and horror to most of the soldiers. "I did that to push you all over the edge. To bring you all to the point of despair and then see how you behave when I wasn't around. I want loyalty, yes. But I don't want blind loyalty. If I had told you the truth from the very beginning, you would not give it your all, and you will continue to depend on me for the rest of your life."
"I only have one brain… and when I'm absent what are you going to do? Lazing about, waiting to be slaughtered? What if I'm dead? Will you guys be just like those Knights at the Archangel bay? Run away and desert their post when victory is in sight just because their leader was killed? NO! You guys are not chess piece… you're HUMANS!" Kage yelled. Everyone heard and gave the captain their undivided attention. "Humans… with your own thoughts… with your own wills. Why should you always follow what I say just because I'm a captain? What is a captain? That's just a rank man gave me. I'm a human, Shadowguards are humans, and so is the Juppongatana! And that means we have all the flaws of being human, including making an error in judgment. Your soul and your will are yours and yours alone. When judgment came upon you, you cannot say: I was told by others to do thus, or that virtue is out of the question at the time. That answer is unacceptable. You have a choice. Always has been, always will be. I may order you to do something, but you must always listen to what your heart tells you before you even obey it."
"But… if an army acted according to their own will while ignoring orders, it'll be chaos!" Natarle rose up and commented.
"Natarle-san… if being a perfect soldier means to obey every order given to you to the letter without regards to its cost… then those soldiers can get the hell out of my sight." Kage replied coldly and Natarle was taken back. "I want you guys to stand up, take your own initiative, and make up your own damn mind. Or are you telling me you would rather content to just shut up and say 'yes sir' 'no sir'? Well? Do YOU? ANSWER ME!"
"NO!" Many of the soldiers wholeheartedly chorused in unison. That was the sign that they agreed with Kage's logic.
"Thought so." Kage chuckled happily. One by one, his strategies had finally yielded its result. And so far, he's pleased by it.
"And… what of the third strategy? That abominable order you gave us?" One soldier, one who still unconvinced of Kage's good intentions, spoke up. The same soldier who had been protesting Kage's decision regarding the third strategy.
"Ah… yes… the dreadful third letter… that was… shall we say… the final exam?"
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"What do you suppose the third strategy really is?" Nichol frowned in thought, remembering the event of how that wall blew up. Raww stated that Kage blew it up himself. "I'm gonna have to assume that the third strategy was triggered when the wall was taken out. But what was it really? It must be really important to be enacted that Kage went out of his way to sabotage his own fortress."
"My guess? It has something to do with testing their loyalty, or morality. But I'm not sure. I believe it has something to do with Kage's personal taste. Based from what I've gleaned from the first two stratagems… Kage's preference in warfare is that he likes soldiers who are autonomous and self sufficient. Both strategies were intended to empower the soldiers, instilling the idea of confidence, self reliance and free thinking. He's creating a decentralized army where soldiers may govern themselves, but still under control over the constraints of the military chain of command." Raww nodded in admiration. Truly the 7th division is turning into something revolutionary. Kage really go all out to change the division to his liking.
"So… what now?"
"Once we've rescued Courtney, we're gonna go back to that fortress, and this time, no more negotiations. Kage is too dangerous to be allowed to escape this place. If he did, God knows what kind of havoc he may cook up with that mind of his." Raww declared with absolute certainty. "Capture him or kill him. We are not going home before we achieve either of those two."
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"The third order… to blow off the whole fortress and sacrifice the refugees as bait to take out the knights along with it… what would you say if I tell you that was to test your loyalty?"
"Loyalty?" The soldier gaped. "But you just said we have to make our own damn mind!"
"Yes. And I still stand by it. But in times of war… there's also times when you have to see the bigger picture, shut up and listen. That is a soldier. No matter what happens." The refugees were now terrified. So Kage REALLY ordered the soldiers to use them as bait for the knights!
"Then by your logic, here's what I say to that: Go fuck yourself." The soldier even went so far and gave the captain the bird on his face.
Kage chuckled darkly. "You go that far? Disobeying a direct order from a superior officer, attempting to incite a mutiny, insulting a commanding officer… that's strike three. What be the punishment for that, Natarle-san?"
Natarle flabbergasted upon being addressed for the first time, but she quickly replied: "Death penalty, sir."
"Again?"
"DEATH PENALTY." The lieutenant spoke the sentence again a tad louder for everyone to hear.
"Aye… Death penalty. Are you ready for that, Soldier?"
The refugees became even more terrified as they looked at the doomed soldier. The Soldier is prepared to accept his fate but still remain deviant. Kage unsheathed Shiki and placed it on the soldier's neck. "Any last words?"
"In my next life… and in the next… may my heart never turn as black as YOURS!" And the soldier spit at Kage's face.
Kage lifted his sword and swing it to the soldier's neck. The crowd closed their eyes and the eyes of their children, shielding them from the horrible sight that was about to unfold.
The soldier also closed his eyes, waiting for his fate.
Which never came. Only a light THUNK on his head.
"?" The soldier opened one of his eyes to see Kage peering down at him, his eyes curved in happiness.
"Well done. You've passed the test soldier. With flying colors if I might add." Kage, giggling like mad, sheathed back his Shiki. "The Thunk was for the spit, in case you're wondering."
Everyone stared dumbly, not understanding one jot of this situation. Prayer, the Shadowguards, and all those who had known the true goal of the plan from the start merely smiled meaningfully.
The soldier looked at himself; he's still in one piece, and his head is still in its place. "I… I… This is a test?" The soldier stated simply.
Kage nodded kindly. "The true purpose… of the Third Strategy. I've taught you confidence and belief in your own strength on the first strategy, free thinking on the second. The third… is this." Kage pointed at the soldier's chest. His heart. The soldiers looked and listened to the shinobi. His words are now kind and gentle. "There's a belief growing among the Zaft Empire… as in the Advanced Race in general… they view all naturals as inferior. And because they consider us inferior… they think it's within their right to do whatever they want with us… to take whatever they want with us… there's a simpler word for that, and the word is: Bullying."
The soldiers noted that the captain's tone was sad and bitter. But above all… it was loaded with personal experience.
"Why did they become like that? Don't even think, I'll give the answer right away: because of power. Their special abilities, their increased strength and intellect. They hold power above another race… the naturals… and the problem is… they lived in a society which encourage the proliferation of such behavior… they just don't know what it's like to be weak… because they've known power all their lives." Kage turned again at the soldier and approached him again as he continued. "And that sort of person… may lose respect for that power… and in their ignorance… they abused it." Kage helped the soldier up as he patted his shoulder warmly. "And right now… because you are a soldier… you ARE strong, as I've emphasized many times before. You have power that normal people don't. But… you mustn't forget… that you were once like them too." Kage waved his hands at the refugees. "Weak. Powerless. A strong man who was once weak knows the value of power, because they remember what it's like to be powerless. But power can blind you. When you're drunk with it, you lose sight of who you were, and then one day you wake up and became the very enemies that you hated; a bully who used their own power to oppress those who are without power."
All these words began to sink it, and the soldiers began to see the true purpose of the third strategy. And their heads tilted down in understanding, and to a lesser degree, shame. Kage was trying to show them that they were once like Refugees too. But then they became a soldier… and because of that, they became stronger than the civilians. And as such… some of them had even thought of enforcing Kage's ruthless order to the civilians. And now that they realized it, they became ashamed of themselves.
"The third strategy was some sort of an enticement. I played on your desire to survive, giving you a false hope and some sense of superiority… that you were the warrior stock and thus deserving to live. But it was an order that was never meant to be obeyed. It was meant to be DIS-obeyed. To teach you all that a man who possess power… must not be blinded by it… respect it. Remember what it's like when you were powerless, and then being left at the mercy of those with power. Whenever you found that you were able to exercise that power doesn't mean you have to. How would one know when to use their power? ASK this." Kage pointed at the soldier's chest. "I don't need a perfect soldier. I'd rather stand shoulder to shoulder with a good man, who knows compassion… rather than an army of millions. For me, what's important is this." His tone warmed again, Kage gently tapped the soldier's chest several times. "Not this." Then he moved to the soldier's head and gave a small flick. "A good men… who knows the value of power, who knows the suffering of those who are powerless… and knows… compassion." That is the true goal of the third strategy… to teach them all compassion.
The soldier looked at the black clad Captain and slowly his frown turned into a grateful smile. "Thanks… I guess?" He turned to Kage, and noticed the captain was smiling at him proudly. "But… what's with all the handicaps? The attacks… the… the double edged strategies… we all nearly died… no, many of us had died!"
"Talking is easy." Kage chuckled. "It's easy to talk about morality when the situation is peaceful and calm. But can you say that when you're faced in mortal peril? No, wait, even saying it is still easy… but can you live by it? Can you uphold your belief, even in the face of inescapable doom? Can you stand up and do what's right even if that means certain death? To see… if when you are faced with impossible odd… can you still stand true to your beliefs… or you're just all bark and no bite, and stop only at words?"
Some of the soldier looked disapprovingly at the Captain's actions. They all think: 'That's too much Captain!'
"You think that was too much?" As if reading their mind, Kage stated. The soldiers who thought that gasped. Kage merely chuckled. "This is not regular army, this is militia. Any men can come and go as they're please. But if you choose to stay here… with me… then you do as I say within the constraints of the military hierarchy." Kage thought again and added. "That would put me in the position of power… to stand above you all. However, as I have mentioned before: power blind and change you. I am no exception. I've had my share of morally ambiguous moments… made monumentally monstrous decisions… In the end, either I die a hero, or live and became the villain. If… WHEN such time did come… when I became so blinded by my power that I abuse them…" Kage glared at the soldiers, the Juppongatana, the other Officers, and even the Shadowguards to make his point. "…I'm counting on you all to put me in my place, by any means necessary, even if it means killing me. That is my only ultimatum. And as such, it will not be questioned. THIS… is the point of the third order."
All the soldiers gasped at the request. So Kage was training them all… not only to become his soldiers… but also to put a stop on him if he ever went overboard. The Third Strategy was a sneak peek as to how far their captain can go if all of his moral inhibitions were naught. Mwu and Murrue were awestruck. To go to such extent to train your men, not only to use them as a sword and shield against one's enemies… but also teaching them to point their swords at their own masters if needs be… that was unheard of. The Shadowguards finally understand their friend's plight. Kira was afraid of what he had become, just how much he had abandoned his humanity. The kind of monster, the kind of heartless decisions, and the ruthless means he would make in pursuit of the end results. He fears that he may not be strong enough to hold this urges at bay… the urges to ignore right and wrong… so he's making a plea for them all to become his restraint. To remind him, by force if needs be, as to what lines he shouldn't cross.
Kage realized his message had been delivered and has been taken to heart. He decided to now end this, and present himself to their judgment: "Whether you stay or leave… remember what you've learned today. To stay who you are… not a perfect soldier… but… a good men." Kage had expected some of his soldiers would protest and left him. Heck, he's ready for the possibility for everyone to desert him. So he stood there, waiting in silence, prepared to accept whatever verdict given.
And he waited.
And to his surprise… none of the soldiers were leaving. Kage's eyes widened. "…none of you are leaving?" He looked at the Juppongatana.
Sven merely answered with his silence by not going anywhere. He's staying. Period.
Bushido simply bowed. "It'll be an honor to fight at your side, Captain Kage."
Kamina was still fuming. "I don't understand one bit about all that crap. I only understand that you're an evil but good guy! Next time, PLEASE make your explanation simpler, GOD-DAMN IT!" Kage sweatdropped. How much simpler was he supposed to make this? But he said next time… so Kamina stays.
Kyoshirou spoke, not only for himself, but also for his Shiseiken. "Just promise us that this will be the last time you will keep something as big as this a secret from the soldiers. We want honesty from the one who we will put our trust into." Kage nodded. "I promise."
Neil simply stated coolly: "Just say I'm sorry, and open a tab for me, first chance you get, and we're even." Kage knelt down to his knees in front of everyone in a traditional Japanese manner and declared: "I'm sorry." And bowed down profusely. "And as for the drink, aren't alcohol prohibited in the army?" Neil laughed. "Aw, you're no fun." But all is forgiven.
Setsuna merely smiled. "While I'm new, but I think this is a pretty novel experience. I'm okay with this." Setsuna, stays.
Karren menacingly pointed her claws on Kage, but finally put it down. "Just don't lie to us again." Kage nodded.
Prayer answered by handing Kage his tattered yet cleaned Captain's coat. "Need I say more?" Kage gratefully took the coat and put it back on.
"FUCK!" An inexplicably happy Canard Pars suddenly slugged him hard by the head, with the blunt surface of his Glamm.
"ITE! Oi! What was that for!" Kage looked angrily at his foul mouthed lieutenant.
"You fucking idiot! You fucking told them they're free to leave, but where the fuck can they go? The fucking ocean is blocked; the Zaft fuckers are still fucking out there, ready to fuck us all six fucking ways to fucking Sunday…!"
"WILL YOU STOP THAT?" The mother closed her beloved son's ears from Canard's tirade of F-word vocabulary.
Neil chuckled. "How many fuck was there in that single sentence? Canard's in ridiculously good mood isn't he?"
Kage understood the mother's plight only too well. "Well… don't worry your f-word butt. I didn't toss you guys into fire without some safety line prepared beforehand."
"Ha! I knew it! So you do have a plan to win this, didn't you Captain?" One of the soldiers cheered happily.
"Nope." Kage answered short, to the horror of every listener in vicinity. "I mean… come on. Even with additional forces, we merely go back to where we started with 2000 men. We're still outnumbered 20 to 1. With that odd, winning is impossible. I'm a genius, not a miracle worker." Kage laughed; as if that was the most ridiculous notion he had ever heard.
Some of the soldiers had their souls flying out of their mouth out of pure fright.
"Captain, that's enough teasing; your men are scared shitless." Prayer noted.
Kage chuckled. "What I'm trying to say is… who says anything about me wanting to WIN this? If we're going to lose… might as well do it in STYLE." Kage smiled mischievously behind his mask. "Let me tell you about the original Third plan."
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Courtney Hieronymus is not in a good mood. He was buried all the way to his neck, making it appear as if he was decapitated and his head was left on the ground. Though nothing can be further from the truth. But getting buried all the way to his neck is not the source of his angry mood. Hell no. Problem is: he was buried BUTT NAKED. "GET ME OUT OF HERE NOW, GOD DAMN IT!"
"Calm down, we didn't bring Earth Knights with us. Otherwise you would've been out of there in a jiffy." Raww pointed out the obvious. The knights were slowly digging the poor man out.
It took several hours to get the poor knight out of that hole. After which the first thing he did was scratched the living day out of himself. "Stupid… ants… worms… consarned fleas… crawling… biting allover me…!"
"How did you end up getting buried all the way to your neck?" Nichol was confused. The last time he saw the Centurion was when Courtney scolded him and then chased the fake Ignis into the night.
"Hell if I know! I was chasing that fake Ignis the other night when suddenly, a guy knocked me up on the face and then something pull me down to earth! Next thing I knew, I woke up like this, and THIS DAMN BUGS BITING ALLOVER ME!" Courtney screamed as he frantically scratching his itching skin to kingdom come. Poor guy. He must've been holding it all night. His whole body gonna swell badly, Advanced or not. "So… SO… what are we gonna do now?"
"We go back, naturally. Kage is way too dangerous. We have a chance. The fortress is heavily damaged and we outnumber them, 20 to one. We'll use everything we have left to defeat them for good in one stroke."
"Sounds like a plan."
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To be concluded…
