Back for another round.
Chapter 8
Scout
Between China and here, I found a few things changed from how I was before I left.
I wasn't so...soldier like. I was braver, calmer, wiser
guess that came with having lived your life already...being able to be like I was...
and then this happened...and I had to take up the blade I hadn't pulled in five years...
and seeing people I had only seen in my dreams...
Walking through the scorched trees gave me time to think while it was still silent. About what was going to happen to us...about what was going on to begin with. Part of me wanted to blame Zuo Ci...after all he caused us trouble in the past...or the future depending on when we were...god this sounds like a bloody existential argument. Anyone have a clue when we are? I thought I told tomorrow. Hah, it'd be almost laughable if it weren't so life threatening all the times. Just once I want to time travel to a place where I'm loved by my own choice. Maybe go to somewhere like Hawaii before any of the wars started but after it was colonized and just...relax in the sun.
Hell, I was meant to go on a beach break after we were done in the war with Shang... I stopped moving as this thought came to mind, sighing as I did so and looking down. If you want blunt honesty, I didn't say I was going for answers out of just that...I said it so I could get a bit of privacy, which considering my apparent fame wasn't going to happen back at the fort. I lent against a nearby tree, sliding down against it as I sat down. I could hear thunder in the distance a good while off.
"This day just gets better and better" I commented, sighing. "When do things just go right?"
"When you work at them my lord" my eyes shot open, my body shooting up and rolling away from the voice, sword drawn at the intruder. I breathed heavily, seeing Lian Shi, crossbow armed and ready to fire right at my skull. I shook my head.
"How long have you been following me?" I asked her. She smiled, holding her crossbow skyward and taking a hand away from the front.
"It's my duty to guard the royalty of Wu, be they my husband, his sister, or his brother in law" She moved closer, my response being to put my blade away and relax. "Even though your appearance may have altered, My Lord, you are still Lord Fu Xi...and my oath still stands" She did a bow, never moving her crossbows aim.
"Can the honors please. Right now I'm just Craig" She raised her gaze, without ending the bow.
"I'm afraid that's not going to happen Lord Craig" oh terrific, just given her something else to use. "If I may, My Lord...it's a...unique name" I smiled.
"Just call it strange, considering your time doesn't even know what Asia is" She raised an eyebrow, leaving her bowing stance. "Trust me, it was about the same reaction I had when I came to China" She blinked, not wanting to tell me exactly what she thought out of the Lord/bodyguard relationship we seemed to have. Load of bollocks to be honest, but then again, 21st century Europe Logic to 2nd century China logic. Then again it did carry on until the dawn of the empires so I can't really complain. Why am I thinking of this NOW?
"Of course My lord" I shook my head, sighing and turning around, walking in the same direction I was before, hearing Lian Shi following behind me.
"Just tell me one thing" I started, still walking but turning my head to her. "Shang Xiang said she was expecting before I...disappeared..."
"Twins, My Lord. A boy and a girl" I had kids...fuck what did I miss? "The young girl was almost as skilled with weapons as you my lord, a shame how the age of war ended just after you disappeared, so she made her way around the land helping in the reconstruction. As for your son, he became an author, and wrote many a tale of how Lord Fu Xi came to Jing before the battle that claimed Huang Zu's life" Wow, so my son is a sell out. "He is as good at the Martial arts as you were, My Lord" Were...that's the key point of that. I used to be this...hero, this demon...now what am I meant to be? We walked on in silence, leaving me to...other thoughts.
This was getting kinda ridiculous. The amount of recruits we were getting that we'd never heard of before, along with a bodyguard, the same one who married Quan, and no appearance of the man himself, never mind a lot of the other Wu troops. I flexed my arm as we walked, working out some of the strain from the earlier battle.
Lian Shi held her arm in front of me, stopping the pair of us as she looked around. I turned to her, seeing her pointing in a direction, motioning me to follow. We moved slowly through the woods, my sword tightly held in my hand, leaving the shield on my back. I must look like a bloody walking tank at this moment in time...well, I say tank but you know what I...Craig, shut up now.
After a few steps, I heard what she was picking up. Armor...soldiers on the move... we exchanged looks, wondering what the hell it could be, friend, foe, neutral...right now Shu and Wei would probably still assume we're foe. And I don't even want to think what the Samurai clans might be thinking. The seven powerful famous great clans to begin with, never mind the not so famous and those who didn't get a chance due to the era they were in...kinda feel sorry for the Date in that regard.
We came to the edge of the forest line, somehow managing to hide in the bushes near the road side, both of us going as low as we could, with Lian aiming the crossbow off the ground. I looked around quickly, getting an idea of what we had.
An army at least of black armored soldiers, a sixth of them wearing the armor I knew from China, another sixth in armor from Japan, a half of what remained of them wearing Armor from the Hundred Years War so thats...a twelth. As for the rest...as I looked them over Lian Shi covered her mouth, both of us in disbelief as we looked them over.
Demons...Snake-men, Minotaurs and...what I can only describe as Spiderheads. Let me explain quickly, Parts of Asian Culture have different ideas on what demons look like. A lot of them are still humanoid, like we have in Europe, but they would always be something else. The snake-men are literally gray bodied humans with white hair, but the more powerful ones have the fangs and such and look more snake like on the face. The Minotaurs are huge, muscular and bullheaded. I'd hate to be on the end of a charge from him. The spider heads are thin, lanky, tall and long with heads resembling spiders, with fangs around their mouths. I gritted my teeth to resist a gasp, seeing the eight eyes on their faces.
We were apparently in the middle of the group, watching them walking northwards where they were gathering up. We remained motionless, both amazed at what exactly we were seeing. This was demons we were looking at. Demons...they actually existed. This was both amazing and scary. I guess Zuo Ci proved Mystics existed so...yeah, guess we shouldn't be so surprised. To look at this would annoy most priests and holymen, as they would have a lot of work to do exorcisms. I'll show them the best way to remove evil spirits: A sword to the skull.
They were gathering up, forming lines I'd liken to a roman legion, the Human soldiers taking the front as the demons took the back. The majority of the demons were weaker Snake men. With only a few minotaurs and spiders at the front. The human sides didn't look like they wanted to be there at all, almost as if they had been press-ganged into it.
I gripped my sword tighter, moving forward slightly as Lian Shi put her hand on my forward arm. I looked at her, seeing her looking at me and shaking her head. I looked away, thinking more on the situation. She was right...this was no time to be a hero.
"HEAYHEAYHEAY!" One of the Minotaurs laughed, my ears ringing like hell at it. "We got a good army here haven't we? Good to smash the bones of the humans" I shook my head, sighing mentally.
"And they have no idea we're coming" a spiderman spoke, smirking with his arms crossed. "This will be easier then we ever thought possible"
"The puny resistance will never know what hit them" a higher power snakeman spoke in response, spinning his katana in his hand. "And Lord Orochi will have more pawns to play with"
Orochi? I exchanged glances with Lian Shi, both of us knowing what he was on about. But THE Snake Demon? Heavens above please don't let him be here. I looked around the ranks, seeing members of the Human army looking...out of place. Officers maybe...looking over them, I could name them just from the descriptions they had in historical texts.
The Crimson Samurai, his hair kept out of his face by a bandana. His short black hair now around his head as his Shank armor was colored Crimson, with the symbol of his clan on the back. Yukimura Sanada...OK, I know this is weird considering...well, this is weird, but Yukimura Sanada? The legendary warrior of Japan who fought from...practically the start of the Sengoku Jidai until it's end at Osaka...man we've gotta recruit him. I can guess that the red faction of the Samurai are either the Takada or the Sanada.
There was a mounted Knight wearing Black armor, with black hair down to his back and mounted on a black horse. If Jeanne is here...then there's no doubt in my mind that that's Edward the black prince, and that would make the red faction of the Medieval lot the English. Joy, bet Jeanne's gonna be overjoyed to hear that the people who are responsible for destroying her home...at least in her time, are here.
The others...OK, now bear with me here, there are like three that I have never EVER heard of anything like these...who the fuck knows these days. It's two guys and a girl, with two being dressed in Medieval European and the other being samurai. Joy. Well, let's not look a gift horse in the mouth.
May as well start with the Samurai. The guy has short black hair, a few scars on an otherwise clean face...deeper then our Samurai friend back at Azuchi and that's saying something in itself. He had a kinda face thing like our samurai friend, but wore lighter gear, colored blue...Tokugawa blue? Moving on, his arms were covered in chain mail with his chest being covered in both leather and chain. His legs were just plain leather. His back held a golden symbol of the sun...his clan maybe? His weapons were a No-dachi and a...musket? Oh come on, now this is ridiculous. I get your outnumbered but why give him a musket? Well...I guess we might be able to drag him in.
The two Europeans however are...weird. And I don't mean that as in they are strange but...they don't match any descriptions you'd get from history text that I know of. Stuff like Jeanne and Edward you'll find anywhere, along with Yukimura and even us from China...if it'd debated that it even happened which I'll grant. Considering that these guys are apparently notable enough to be as they are...I fail to see how they are notable.
The guy is wearing a lot of leather, no coloring to it to distinguish himself from either side. He could be either to be fair. He had steel plates on his shoulder which were left only the arm exposed, and saying that he had plenty of steel over the arms, save for where the hands where, which was bare. He lowers were bare, save for a tattoo on each. He had leather covering everything lower then that, with odd steel plates in places, like his heart and the front of his legs. Over his back was a bow along with arrows, and on his waist were a longsword and a shield strapped to his arm...OK, excuse me for this, but I heard in the past England, being the specialist in archery that it was, gave it's archers a shield in the bow hand so that they can fight as a normal foot soldier, albeit with heavier shield arm and a wider part of the arm to protect.
The other is wearing armor I can only describe as a Norse Valkyrie. Seriously, the armor is gold with white wings, a helm with white wings and some very nice silver plates for the lower regions. She's gonna be entertaining, an Axe on her waist with a shield in her hand. Her hair was hidden under the helm and...I could just make out a crossbow and bolts along with a sword. so...well, I wouldn't be blamed for calling her a Viking. Hell, she could be a Valkyrie.
"There's too many of them for us two along" Lian Shi whispered. I nodded.
"Then let's get some reinforcements" She raised her eyebrow, and I pointed to the people I had seen. She looked at them, nodding. "They've gotta be from Europe"
"So we've got people we can recruit here...just need to rescue them"
"Exactly...we just need a distraction, along with a way to fight them, albeit it temporarily"
We lay there in the bush, trying to think of something. We knew that these guys couldn't be working for demons of their own volition, who would be. We knew that we're outnumbered, even with the army that was present here, only that it was half the force the enemy had, and most likely not as well armed or strong.
We needed a miracle of some sort...
"What's that?" Lian Shi asked silently, looking at me. I raised an eyebrow, listening to whatever I could, trying to hear what she was on about. It was faint...but...there was something. I heard the faint sound of feet running through the woods we had just been in. I swallowed, nervous that it was the enemy coming from behind.
"HEY! UGLY!" I heard a bold male voice shout. The demons turned towards it, to the right of our position. They looked skyward, the feet stopping running, so I can presume what happened. "For China!" There were three people in that shout, but as soon as they stopped shouting, the demons raised a sword (Snakeman) a club (Minotaur) or extended his arms in some weird fashion (Spider thing), three separate occurrences of steel on steel, even with the wooden club and the arms. Three figures were held in midair above the demons. The demons forced them off, the warriors rolling off the back of the demons and into the ranks of the weaker demons, but they recovered quickly, taking a battle stance.
"HEAYHEAYHEAY!" oh god I hate that laugh. "More puny humans for the grill" the Minotaur was gently clubbing his palm, and whilst not looking at us, I could tell they were smiling. "Please say I can smash his bones"
I looked at the new guys, getting a good look at what they looked like...hell they were even in Cheesy battle poses. Closest one was wearing Chinese late war armor, but a lighter version. To compare to Xiahou Ba, they seem to be exposing a lot more skin. It looks really fancy though, colored red with a tiger on the chest. He held a Halberd, with his face obscured by a helmet looking like a tiger head.
Number two was a woman, again wearing light armor...if it could even qualify for that, it looks like something a Chinese monk would wear. Hell she doesn't even have weapons aside from two spiked steel gauntlets. She has black long hair, with a flower of some sort placed on her ear, and had the red tint to her clothing. She even had a pony tail.
The third guy was...for what it was worth, different. He had a quarterstaff over his shoulder, with again, armor which would pretty much not count as armor. Best I can call it is again monk's wear. Only as opposed to the woman, he has short hair, and red tinted robes. How many more crackpots are we going to find?
"You wanna fight? Then bring it the hell on!" The halberdier spoke, spinning the halberd around and holding it above his head with both his hands.
"We fight in the name of our family!" the woman pitched in, the quarterstaff user remaining quiet. She punched her hands together, taking a stance I can only relate to martial arts. The amount of spikes she had on her hands and legs I think I can see how things are with her.
"Family...well then" one of the Snakemen spoke. The mass of Snake demons behind them raised their weapons. "Meet ours. KILL THEM!"
"NOW MEN!" I heard from the back. I turned, seeing The Black Prince raising the English flag. "Fight! Fight for your lives! For England! For the Sanada! For Freedom!" The only cry I really heard back was 'FOR GOD, ENGLAND AND ST GEORGE!' aside from the normal battle cries, the human element of the army rebelling I guess for want of a better term. Doesn't matter the army, he can lead it apparently. Guess Ed's better at this then I thought. The whole place erupted in battle, and to give them credit, they have some really strong characters who can definitely fight an army or two.
But where did we come in I hear you ask as I grab my shield off my back.
"You ready?" I asked Lian Shi, seeing her nod. "Let's Roll!"
The English Prince along with the Maid of Orleans
The Crimson Samurai alongside the leader of the Saika Ikki
and numerous other commanders of note from both ages
Things were going to get interesting, and not least due to that.
OK, I swear that's everything, that's the OCs, just need to get them named and that's that. Otherwise, I don't think I've finished the cast fully yet, as we need enemy officers, even when it was the final battles, Orochi's army had human fighters in the early days, with only WO3 having a pure Demon army. And then that was the final final battle. Anyway, with this we've got the base set...now for what I originally intended this fic to be.