Disclaimer: The Warriors series is owned by Koei and developed by Omega Force.
A/N: This fic is coming along nicely without stresses of historical doctrine. Yes, Lady Otani IS Kunoichi even if people only acknowledge her as a made up character. The fact remains that Yukimura…married an influential woman and Zhao Yun does not historically. Does this affect the way I enjoy writing Zilong? No way, besides who knows Zhao Yun's suffering in the 3k era best? Gah, I'm writing too many characters and my previous chapter should have taken abit of editing, but my proofreader is on vacation.
Dynastic Kingdom Slugfest
Episode 24
Outside the arena….
"Kick…arse…." Wei Yan and the rest of the securities walked back into the arena before they reach the entrance.
"Dong Zhuo will not refrain from making another ruckus in this arena," Zhou Tai said.
"He should know his place. This tournament is a hundred percent Anti Dong Zhou!" Wen Chou nodded.
"Agree," Yan Liang opened the door so that the four bodyguards can report to the manager.
Ma Chao and Lu Bu watch the four enter. Tonight has been awesome as they finally get some action instead of waiting.
"They'll sure be coming back for revenge, Lu Bu," Ma Chao said.
"It won't make any different. The result will be the same and I guarantee it," Lu Bu then twirls his halberd reflecting the days he shred so much blood to pursue The World's Strongest.
Back in the box office…
"Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires; this may have been Koei's apology for the disappointment of the original DW 6," Nagamasa said.
"Still, Samurai Warriors 2 Empires is better than this. More forces including mine," Masamune grabs the 360 controller to join the coop play in Empire mode.
"I've just rise my army and attack Bei Ping from Yuan Shao while Cao Cao and Lu Bu are attacking him from every side," Zhao Yun briefed.
"Liu Bei didn't even make a single move in the Guan Du scenario…." Yukimura stare at the map scanning the forces remaining in the game.
"That's because Xu Zhou is one of the worst provinces to be a base of operations for conquering China. Didn't Lu Bu died over there?" Masamune twitched his eyebrow.
"Well, my clan is always staying in Echizen. We barely decide to attack unless the Asakura provide our assistance…" Nagamasa sighed.
"That's why you keep living in harmony so much with the useless Oda whore who made you Nobunaga's puppet. Why don't your clans just attack the damn Rokkaku to prove yourself worth talking about?" Masamune said.
"Hmm, you know, you're advice is wise and that was indeed my regret," Nagamasa watched Zhao Yun manufacture the strategy and council phrases.
"The assignments and mercenary missions are vital to getting oaths and marriage?! Interesting," Yukimura grinned.
They played the game with a lot of talk about the cool features and joked on Yuan Shao.
At the ring….
"Guo Jia!" Cao Cao rushed towards the ring post where his fallen friend got eliminated.
"And now it's my turn. Lord Zhongda, I pledge my allegiance to Jin dynasty," Zhang He don an elegant pose.
"What?!" Xu Huang turns to Zhang He with shocked gaze.
"Well, Cao Cao, shall we start by eliminating you or that pansy who couldn't even believe in himself?" Sima Yi pointed his fan at the struggling Liu Bei.
"Who even wants to waste time with him, now I'll make you pay for eliminating Guo Jia," Cao Cao shoved Liu Bei's face with his foot then leave him to engage a duel with Sima Yi.
"Hehe come, so called greatest hero of three kingdoms. You should be ashamed how Cao Pi dethroned the Han, it had inspired me and my sons to do the same," Sima Yi chuckled.
"My ambition is to stabilize the country from rebel scum like this pansy behind me and now I'll wipe away of your treason. You won't be leaving with the money and everything I worked hard for," Cao Cao stated.
"It does include abdicating the Imperial Throne. Any world unifier pursues the same method," Sima Yi nodded.
"Heh…" Nobunaga smiled from his seat. It's all in his philosophy. 'Be ruthless, your enemies will be.'
Hideoyoshi glared at Ieyasu for pulling that same trick which started the Battle of Sekigahara.
"Well, don't blame me, Ishida caused some of your men to turn to my side," Ieyasu shrugged.
"Argh! All these years our country tried to have peace and my failures to extend our civilization to the outdated Chinese no longer as great as the days of old," Hideoyoshi whined.
"At least, I keep Japan a peaceful nation….if it weren't for Yukimura's interference bringing up your incompetent son," Ieyasu sighed.
Cao Cao clashes with Sima Yi, he dodged the beams and deflected one with his own projectile. While at the other side of the ring, Zhang He confronts Xu Huang leaving Zhou Yu to meet Jiang Wei alone.
"So, Gongming, will you not join the Sima family?" Zhang He persuaded Xu Huang an offer.
"……." Xu Huang recapped when he turn against Yang Feng after saving Emperor Xian.
Zhou Yu finally meets Jiang Wei who is teaming up with Lu Xun against Zhang Liao. This is Zhuge Liang's successor, the failure who leads Shu to its demise thanks to the losses and Liu Shan relaying on a eunuch with his state affairs.
"Hmm?" Jiang Wei turns around in high alert and the Chi Bi hero meets prodigy.
"Are you the one Zhuge Liang recruit with promising expectations?" Zhou Yu asked.
"That's right. I'm Prime Minister Zhuge's most loyal officer Jiang Wei. You must be the Prime Minister's inferior complex, the petty Zhou Yu looking to kill my master," Jiang Wei readied his stance thought that Zhou Yu is going to fight him.
"I'm inferior to Zhuge Liang….?" Zhou Yu questioned.
"Nobody can outmatch the phenomenal of the Prime Minister," Jiang Wei grinned.
"Ah, I heard wonderful things Zhuge Liang did, but still…." Zhou Yu cleared his throat and analyst this kid's attitude. It's no fluke this guy joined Zhuge Liang out of respect for his mother's treatment as a hostage and then become one of Kongming's biggest fanboy.
"I must prove my master by eliminating you, since you're trying to eliminate me by working with Sima Yi," Jiang Wei said.
"Actually, I'm here to see if Kongming's expectations of you were just overestimated and a fluke. Compare to Lu Xun, you're the one who lost its kingdom by failures," Zhou Yu readied his stance and thought, "this guy is biased of Zhuge Liang. I wonder why most of the ministers are suck up with his distinguishing influence."
"Don't call me a failure! I may not be perfect, but I'm still the future of Han," Jiang Wei charged at Zhou Yu.
"Hm…" Zhou Yu parried the first set of strikes from Jiang Wei.
As Guo Jia gets up from taking a critical hit from Sima Yi's musou, he struggles to regain conscious. Xun Yu hurried to drag him to the backstage with the help of other Cao loyalists.
"Zhongda, I knew his vicious secrecy has been his greatest weapon," ChengYu frowned.
"That's why I warned Mengde before he took the title of Wei throne. It took a huge influence on someone who is capable of the same talent and ambition to do the same. Even though, I'm a Han loyalist, I put too much faith in Cao Cao," Xun Yu said.
Sun Jian stop to check the changes in the ring. With Guo Jia eliminated and Wei taking a huge turn around with the arrival of Sima Yi, it's a 4 way contest between the three kingdoms and the unified Jin dynasty.
"Well, Benchu, you don't have to worry about getting eliminated this soon. I'm hungry to challenge Sima Yi and learn more about this Jin," Sun Jian said.
"Eh? So you'll let me stay in this ring?" Yuan Shao look puzzled at what his rival said.
"I still have to settle with you as being the last person I want to eliminate and win this tournament. Besides, I own you before and you let Liu Biao plot my demise. Hardly anyone is cheering you except the half brother I worked for," Sun Jian pointed where Yuan Shu at.
"I don't need his fancy cheering!" Yuan Shao boasted.
"Hahaha, the two of you barely get along, yet both of you were responsible for the mess in the coalition," Sun Jian laughed.
"First of all you moron, nobody acknowledge Emperor Xian as the Han emperor replacing Shao who was the rightful choice for He Jin's wishes!" Yuan Shao urged.
"Yeah yeah…and you and Yuan Shu wanted to replace Xian with an honorable guy like Liu Yu. Too bad, you caused a lot of problems between Liu Yu and Gongsun Zan to make yourself famous for the people to have a change of heart. Well, I don't buy your bull one bit….and I still don't like you, neither does Ce," Sun Jian glared at Yuan Shao.
At the backstage…
"Hahaha, Sun Jian still can't admit his death at the hands of us while bragging how he owned Yuan Shao and his deeds in the coalition," Cai Mao and Huang Zu enjoyed an easy qualification into the battle royal. Their only reason is Sun Jian.
"Like he has any business talking how great he is," Huang Zu said.
At the manager's office…
"I know my reputation was troubled by those forum debates. You know the hardest thing to studying the history? It's putting too much trust and confidence on the records despite it's been written favorably by scholars of the winning side. Yeah, Chen Shou was a Shu scholar, but Qiao Zhou's his mentor and that guy joined Liu Bei after Liu Bei prematurely revived the Han despite criticism and his motivation to attack Wu for the death of Guan Yu. The Jing Zhou issue leads towards Guan Yu's death and it made more sense on the Yi Ling war which Zhao Yun and the other officers opposed because of the unbearable situation on the Han dethronement and the mass employment of talent growing in Cao Pi's dynasty, let's not forget how many Han loyalist were put to death by paranoia when Cao Cao was running the Han and the rebellion that erupt after Empress Fu's death," SilentNinja said on the phone.
There was a knock on the door and Zhang Yi opened while the latest member of the security, Xu Sheng watch his Wu boys perform in that ring on HDTV.
"Manager, I'm tired of having to work at a hot dog standing!" Sun Quan entered the room noticing Xu Sheng becoming a bodyguard for the DKS security.
"Be patient, you'll be in the ring soon. You did a good job and must continue working on those hot dogs," SilentNinja said.
"I'll take that as a compliment. But, why do you hate me so much?" Sun Quan asked.
"Because you always care too much about yourself, about your position, you're impatient, can't justify your actions honestly and the way you treated Sun Shang Xiang after she returned to Wu. Need more I say, you also have a Guo Wang as your wife whom her son succeeds you," SilentNinja gave a serious look at Sun Quan. Of all the 3k historical figures, he can't stand Sun Quan.
"At least, it's not about Guan Yu…." Sun Qun scoffed.
"No, you didn't kill him, heck I wonder how much of an idiot you'll be to have realize Guan Yu's influence to cause a rift between your fear of Liu Bei army attacking you and wanting Jiang Ling back you heavily romanticized. A couple of your officers were murders, but you gain their acknowledgement for contributing. I wonder where you trust your personnel at? That's right your ministers who barely know anything about war let along the cause of that had you cowardly take sides with Cao Pi the usurper. That's as low as you could go to make up for yourself as a crappy military commander who couldn't beat Zhang Liao," SilentNinja urged.
"And so the fact that Liu Bei attacked me, my fears were realized," Sun Quan nodded.
"Because Guan Yu was killed by your men, that insults Liu Bei's benevolence to turn him into a vengeful hypocrite that Cao Cao was when he massacre Xu zhou…." SilentNinja sighed.
"You know, it's hard to admit that sooner or later Wu and Shu will be enemies," Xu Sheng shuddered.
"But, why should we? We both know that's what Cao Pi wanted," Zhang Yi implied.
"Whatever, it's war! That's the bottom-line! I'm sick of this treatment!" Sun Quan soon storm out of the hall shutting the door hard.
"War breeds hatred….numbskull," SilentNinja muttered.
"I wish Shu attacked Cao Pi and restore the Han dynasty in those 6 years of his regime," Zhang Yi said.
SilentNinja return to his phone call talking with the unknown caller.
"Hello? Yeah, Shu now have an advantage with the arrival of Sima Yi and Jin dynasty which greatly weaken Wei's dominance in the ring. In the mean time, I want to discuss my own propaganda on the Three Kingdoms," And then SilentNinja went into detail.
At the hall….
"Hey Lu Bu, I've been itching to a sparring session with you."
"Ma Chao, have you been well lecturing justice?"
The two mysterious warriors meet Lu Bu and Ma Chao with greeting to their rivalry.
"Naoe Kanetsugu," Ma Chao grinned.
"Keiji, do you wish to challenge my mighty as well? Dong Zhuo had his chance and still didn't prove anything to worn me out," Lu Bu smirked.
Outside the Arena….
The Qiao sisters are glad to see Dong Zhuo gone and now they're sitting down somewhere thinking about their husbands with nothing to do.
"Sis, let's go meet Shang Xiang? It's boring gazing at the motionless moon," Xiao Qiao groaned.
"I like watching the romantic nocturne of the moonlight, you may go on without me," Da Qiao replied.
"I don't like leaving you alone Da. What if some peevy comes and hit on you?" Xiao Qiao warned.
"I'll be fine as long as it's not Dong Zhuo," Da Qiao smiled innocently.
Suddenly, a mysterious figure walks amongst the two ladies. He appears abit chubby with powdered face cover.
"How wonder to see such phenomenal beauties in front of me. Just as beautiful as my daughter, Sena," the mysterious figure said.
"Huh? Uh, Da I think we should get back inside. It's that Katamari obsessed weirdo," Xiao Qiao hurried to drag her sister off her seat.
"It's Lord Yoshimoto isn't it?" Da Qiao blinked.
The Imagawa daimyo give a satisfactory smile. The Qiaos now fall for the overconfident Buddhist lord.
See you next episode
