Here's the next chapter, after this chapter there will be only 6 chapters left, so this fic is nearing it's end. But there will be sequels, it will have some dialogue at the start but then it will be a battle chapter. Also everyone uses their 5th weapon from DW8, which I can't wait to get!
I'm also extremely sorry for how long it took to update, but I had been really busy and I had a ton of assignments for school.
The stage uses the map of the Battle of Xi Liang from DW5, it will also play very similar to that, just with maybe a tad more officers and no reinforcements from Ma Chao. The 2 sides once again are Dong Zhou and Yuan Shao. Also, italics will be used to show the flashbacks.
Assassin master ezio 91: Thanks, glad you enjoyed it.
Ayu Misaki: Aw thanks! Glad that you think so and that you'll be supporting me! Kisses back!
Diao Chan closed her eyes as she danced slowly to the melody and began to sing, her voice and dance were beautiful as she sung about the soldiers who had fallen in their attempt to escape, the handmaidens were playing the erhu perfectly.
Finally opening her eyes she saw Dong Zhuo's eyes looking only at her, she gave him a seductive smile as she spun around and did some twirls, catching Lu Bu looking solely at her, she gave him a pleading look that begged for salvation, one that went unnoticed by anyone else.
As the dance, melody and song came to an end she bowed as the applause was almost deafening. Smiling sheepishly she thanked the audience for their time as she gave praise to the three handmaidens, the 'guards' of the Emperor. 'I wonder if I should reveal to them my ploy?' Diao Chan thought as she continued to walk down the hall.
At night time Diao Chan had been called for by Dong Zhuo. 'What does he want me to do for him...?' Thought Diao Chan as she walked to his room and was shocked to see him in laying in bed with a wet cloth covering his forehead. He was sick! Diao Chan barely resisted the urge to smile as she realized that.
"My Lord? What's wrong?" Asked Diao Chan with false concern, if anything she was hoping it was serious and would kill the tyrant but the enchantress was not that dumb to mistake this as a serious disease, it was most likely just a cold that would pass in a few days.
Dong Zhuo's next words confirmed the unfortunate reality as he broke out into a fit of coughs while saying, "It's just a cold. Li Ru said I'd be fine in a few days, I just want you to play and sing for me."
"Of course my Lord, but would like me to make you a tea before I start?" The seductress offered as she gently caressed his head, waiting for him to fall asleep. Dong Zhuo denied the offer of tea with a wave of his hand. Nodding Diao Chan started playing the erhu as her voice followed.
When Dong Zhuo finally fell asleep, the woman sighed as she placed the erhu on the ground. It was so simple, she could stab the tyrant right now, sneak away to get to her father before they escaped to Cao Cao, where they'd be protected and eventually he'd rescue the Emperor.
Shaking her head, she felt the feeling of someone watching her and out of the corner of her eye she saw Lu Bu, she buried her hands in her head and pretended to cry, the smile on her face was hidden by her hands as she felt Lu Bu's anger at Dong Zhuo.
An hour after Dong Zhuo had fallen asleep a soldier rushed in waking up Dong Zhuo who glared at him furiously, "How dare you wake me up! You better have a good reason before I blow you head off you insect!" Shouted Dong Zhuo.
The soldier quickly bowed before forcing the message. "Yuan Shao is attacking us! He's making his way to Chang'An!" Cried out the soldier, Dong Zhuo grumbled something, Diao Chan didn't catch it but the soldier did.
"How big of an army?" Dong Zhuo grumbled as the soldier gulped nervously before answering. "Not that big! Then why did you need to wake me up!" Glared Dong Zhuo as the soldier quickly answered. "Li Ru requested permission to stop this small force before he gained a foothold and..."
The soldier trailed off after seeing Dong Zhuo's expression. Zhuo grabbed the soldier by the neck and held him close to his face. Diao Chan watched with concern for the frightened soldier as Dong Zhuo muttered. "Tell Li Ru to take Lu Bu, Jia Xu, Zhang Liao and Wang Fang."The soldier nodded but before anything else could happen Diao Chan decided to speak up.
"Lord Dong Zhuo, may I be allowed to accompany the Master Strategist in this battle?" Diao Chan said, she had three reasons for wanting to be in the battle, reason 1 was to get Dong Zhuo to trust her and further fall under her spell, reason 2 was to wrap Lu Bu around her finger a little tighter and reason 3, she could not explain but a part of her wanted to see the carnage brought upon the battle by Lu Bu.
"Very well." Dong Zhuo as he put the soldier down. "Now get out of here!" He screeched, the soldier bowed before hurriedly fleeing the room. Diao Chan also bowed as she walked out of the room slowly, she could only wonder if the army was going to as small as the soldier believed.
Diao Chan panted heavily, she was exhausted. Luckily Yuan Shao was too, her body felt like it was going to collapse into a heap of the group, thankfully they didn't. It made no sense to her that in much larger and difficult battles, she had never felt as drained as she did now.
"It's such a shame that I have to kill you." Yuan Shao spoke, his voice sounded regal and noble, with a frown on his face he continued. "One with such beauty such as yours should be apart of the nobility that is the Yuan clan. You would of made a great wife to Yuan Tan or Yuan Shang."
After hearing that, Diao Chan glared hard and shouted back with venom, "I would never marry a son of a man with dreams of his own Empire!" Despite the fact she accused him if being a traitor, Diao Chan had no clue if he was loyal or not to the Han.
Yuan Shao's eyebrow rose after that comment. "Hah! A mere servant to the tyrant suggests that I'm no longer loyal to the Han? What are you trying to do commoner? Trying to tempt one of noble blood into losing his head?"
Looking down, embarrassed that she had been called a slave of Dong Zhuo's, Diao Chan only looked up in time to duck quickly as Yuan Shao's Stretch Rapier stretched and almost skewered through her throat. Diao Chan growled, annoyed that she let a mere word make her lose focus on the battle.
"It truly is a shame. Hmmph, you could even of replaced that traitor Guo Jia. I'm sure your nearly as intelligent and maybe even more manipulative then him if you managed to get Zhen Ji to hate you as much as she does," Yuan Shao sighed, trying not to think of when Zhen Ji had reported to him that Guo Jia had left his army. No doubt to join Cao Cao's.
Hearing the mention of Guo Jia's name brought back the conversation she had with the man earlier in the battle, Diao Chan knew she would never be able to surpass him in strategies. In fact, Yuan Shao's army would already of had the advantage if Tian Feng hadn't ruined Guo Jia's plan.
Guo Jia smirked as Diao Chan and Jia Xu approached him and Xu You. "Guo Jia are you sure you don't want to reconsider?" Xu You whispered to the smirking man, "You, my talents are being wasted, if anything you should be coming with me." Retorted Guo Jia.
Diao Chan stared suspiciously as Guo Jia raised his hands suggesting them to lower their weapons. "Please, if we do that we'll end up just like Han Fu did." Diao Chan said, griping her chain whip even tighter.
"Relax, o' great beauty. Besides if Tian Feng actually stuck to the plan, Han Fu would still be attached to his legs." Guo Jia said, both were referring to Yuan Shao's incompetent general that had foolishly challenged Lu Bu to a duel and hadn't even lasted a mere second before his torso fallen off of his legs. Diao Chan shuddered as she remembered the gruesome fight.
"Ah, perhaps I should of killed Tian Feng then instead of allowing him to flee." Jia Xu spoke up for the first time, as Diao Chan glared at the man who she despised, still not trusting him with her secret."You'd be doing the land a favour." Guo Jia chuckled, at which Xu You muttered. "His strategies aren't that bad."
"Even a two year old could figure out all of the flaws in his plans." Guo Jia pointed out, Jia Xu and Diao Chan both mumbled their agreements. "If you have a point to this you might want to get to it quicker, Lu Bu and Zhang Liao will arrive soon." Said Diao Chan, her face remaining emotionless, this pointless battle was breaking her heart to see so many innocent people killed for such a insignificant thing.
"Ah right yes, well it doesn't really have a point, only just to inform you that you won't need to fight your way through." Guo Jia said, "Yuan Shao is wasting my talents. Listening to the empty headed strategists instead of me, I deserve better. I'm going to join Cao Cao's army."
Diao Chan almost said 'take me with you' but she managed to keep her mouth shut as Jia Xu let out a smile, it was clear that he was glad that with Yuan Shao's smartest strategist out of the way, Yuan Shao would soon fall. "Both of you?" Jia Xu asked, Xu You shook his head. "I'm staying, Yuan Shao may see reason."
"Anyway, beautiful, don't worry we'll see each other on the battlefield soon enough." Guo Jia comforted Diao Chan, who did a very fake smile in response. "While I won't be defecting, I will be retreating." Xu You uttered as he and Guo Jia abandoned the battlefield.
Shaking herself out of her thoughts, Diao Chan gracefully back flipped into the air, dodging Yuan Shao's strike in the process, and landed on top of Yuan Shao. "How do you like this dance?" She asked as she performed three somersault kicks in a row, each hitting Yuan Shao's head and getting more powerful after the last one. The third kick knocked Yuan Shao to the ground.
Waving cutely, Diao Chan winked and asked, "Would you like an encore? Or perhaps an extended version of that dance?" Yuan Shao shook his head as he stood up, "That last kick, that seemed like it was more powerful then any of Yan Liang's or Wen Chou's strikes."
The mention of his two strongest generals names reminded Diao Chan of a short battle that had occurred between Lu Bu and Zhang Liao against Yuan Shao's 2 strongest fighters. Of course, it didn't last long before they had retreated. Leaving only Zhen Ji and Yuan Shao left to fight a hopeless battle.
She still remembered the look on the younger woman's face when Diao Chan ran right past her to fight with Yuan Shao instead. Really she just wanted this pointless dance to end, but she never expected Yuan Shao to be this strong, if anything she thought he was pathetically weak.
Diao Chan twirled, bowed and leaped out of the way of the elongated attacks from the rapier, no wonder why it had been called a stretch rapier. But Diao Chan just smiled cheerfully as she evaded all the attacks like she was dancing, albeit a dance that had only three moves, but a dance nonetheless.
"Shall we end this boring dance?" Diao Chan states, fluttering her eyelashes as Yuan Shao narrowed his eyes at her, "I shall not fall to a filthy peasant." He stated as Diao Chan winced as his rapier just managed to cut her arm.
Raising his rapier, Yuan Shao smirked as fire arrows began to rain down. Diao Chan tried her best to dodge all of them, but she cried out in pain when one of the arrows just got her.
But before Diao Chan could retaliate did a pose, that was surrounded by sparkling yellow energy that healed some of his wounds and knocked Diao Chan away. "Not fair." Chan muttered as she slowly got back to her feet only to just narrowly spin out of harms way.
"I'm really sick of twirling." Said the beauty to herself as she once again twirled as Yuan Shao's elongated rapier pierced through the air were her head was just a few seconds ago.
"Can you see through the secrets of my style?" Diao Chan asked as she was suddenly surrounded by a pink aura and floating pink petals and performed a prancing dance and when she finished Yuan Shao was sent flying away.
"Aww, blown away by my beauty? How cute is that." Diao Chan said as Yuan Shao stood back up, but before another move could be made, Zhen Ji came running in before sliding to her knees, forming a bow.
"My Lord, we have to flee now. The enemy has defeated all of our officers and nearly all of troops! And I don't want to die in a battle against an army under the command of Li Ru! The humiliation!" Zhen Ji pleaded, though her tone was still haughty.
"Very well. Sometimes you must yield, even for a noble such as myself." Yuan Shao agreed as he hoped on his famed and beautiful horse Storm Runner. Helping Zhen Ji onto the horse he ordered a retreat shortly before he himself fled the battlefield.
Diao Chan rolled her eyes as she heard the snake like voice of Li Ru start a speech. 'Honestly, I'd rather be with a real snake then be anywhere near him.' She thought to herself as she waved and blew Lu Bu a kiss before walking towards him.
She just wanted this damn war to be over.