The Saika Rebels and the French-English Forces were arriving at anther battleground. However, this one had features that were familiar to both Joan of Arc and Prince Edward. It held fort walls and a town from the battlefields of France. Unfortunately, the surrounding area was covered with the serpent forces, the Demon Army, Magoichi called them.
From what the French and English leaders could gather, it began with the Serpent King, Orochi, combining areas of land across space and time to fight against the most powerful warriors of the ages. Right now, Magoichi has spent years trapped in this mixed dimension, saved it twice, and now needs to save it a third from this 'Hydra.' To pretty much all of them, it sounded like a far fetched story to tell, but over the weeks it took to get to where they are now. In fact, some of the French and English were starting to get along, but not enough to get rid of the still pretty much apparent animosity between them.
Right now, they were sticking beyond the outskirts of the enemy, so that they wouldn't be spotted. A few patrols here and there, but they made short work of them. They got to the base of a mountain when something unpredictable happened.
They were surrounded by the serpent forces.
Well, mostly surrounded. The path up the mountain was open. And, what made it confusing was that many humans were a part of the enemy, not fighting against them.
"Up the mountain! Go!" Edward ordered.
The French-English and the Rebels all rode or ran their way up the mountain. Any horsemen were out the front, ready to charge through any of the Demon Army that they came across. Luckily, there weren't any serpents impeding their quick retreat.
Kiyomori Taira was overlooking the battlefield. Beside him was the deathly annoying monkey Sun Wukong. Honestly, Kiyomori doesn't know why he keeps the lithe demon with him. Maybe because Wukong knows how to manipulate the minds of the enemy into serving him.
"Lord Kiyomori!"
Said demon looked behind him, seeing a messenger.
"What is it?"
"An enemy army has been spotted to the north. Many are those we have never seen before." The messenger explained.
Kiyomori smiled evilly, knowing an opportunity when it arises. He looked over to Sun Wukong, who had a similar look to Kiyomori himself. He looked back to the serpent messenger.
"Tell us. What exactly do they look like?"
"All are covered in armour. Steel plate, but something else shows itself around their armour. Some are on horses with weapons similar to that Nagamasa Azai. There is that Magoichi Saika with them as well."
"Wukong. You know what we want you to do."
"Alright, boss man."
With that, Sun Wukong seemingly disappeared into thin air. The messenger ran away, having delivered his message. Kiyomori sat down into the Lotus position, taking his prayer beads and using it as a spyglass. He saw Sun Wukong appearing out of thin air into the base on top of the hill. The enemy army spotted the demon monkey, but Wukong had already casted his spell. The army had multi-coloured tendrils going through the helmets and fancy hats into their brains. But three resisted the spell's effect. Magoichi Saika resisted, his rebels out of the spell's range, along with another male in black armour and a woman in white. He heard Wukong grunt, seemingly in shock about his failure to ensnare everyone into Kiyomori's command.
Kiyomori felt a presence more towards the eastern edge of the battlefield. He shifted his attention over to the north east region. He saw the most familiar plume of fur and helmet. It was him. Kiyomori sent his generals to be on guard for the intruders in the north east. He didn't want to be defeated from them like at Anegawa.
Joan of Arc was confused, along with Edward. A mix between a man and an ape appeared and casted some spell. Now, their army was attacking them. The bad thing was that neither Edward, Joan or Magoichi wanted to harm their allies.
"Go, you two. I'll handle this monkey here." Magoichi ordered, rushing into the fight with his Rebels.
"W-what about you?" Edward asked.
"I'll hold them off. Now go!" Magoichi yelled back, now fully into fighting the monkey.
Joan ran out of the northern gate, with Edward riding out on his warhorse. He stuck his hand out towards Joan, beckoning her to take it. She obliged with Edward lifting her up onto the horse's back, behind Edward. Edward spurred the horse, sending it into a gallop down the hill.
"Do you think Magoichi is going to be alright?" Joan asked.
"Only God knows his fate for now. Right now, let's just hope that He will be kinder to us." Edward answered.
The serpent forces noticed the warhorse galloping down the hill. They sent their spear heads to face the lean horse. Luckily, the plate on the horse deflected the spear heads. Edward guided his horse to a small ridge to rest for a small while.
In the distance, they heard a noise. Sounded like a war horn.
"We are not alone after all." The prince stated.
"Seems like it." Joan responded.
Behind them, they heard the familiar clanking of armour. The two looked at the source, seeing their comrades walking like undead towards them. They heard a few sharp twangs of English longbows firing. None of the arrows hit the two, but they did hit the unlucky horse. Edward placed his lance along his back, taking out his longsword and kite shield from the dead horse.
"Come on. We head eastward." Edward ordered.
The two Europeans began to run away from their conjoined armies. They began to hope that they can find reinforcements and, possibly, save Magoichi.
Zhou Tai, Ranmaru Mori and Cai Wenji were running as fast as they can towards the mountain. Ma Chao sent them because it might be a strategic advantage if they had it to themselves. Toshiie Maeda and Zuo Ci were running behind the three. A small force of samurai and Chinese soldiers followed behind them.
"No! Stay back!"
They heard the shout, coming from around the corner, towards the mountain. They rounded it, and the sight that befell them was startling. Two odd people, one male, the other female, were shuffling backwards, backing away from what looks like their own soldiers, who have been influenced by Sun Wukong's magic.
"Please, stop! I don't want to hurt you!" The woman said, a strange accent covering her voice. She was pointing her spear towards the soldiers.
The lead soldier raised his right arm, holding a sword. It dropped, hoping to kill the woman. The man in black armour raised his sword to meet it. The steel clashed, neither combatant standing down.
"Get your wits about you, soldier! Become sane!" He yelled, bashing his odd shaped shield into the soldier's chest, making him stumble back.
He came back towards the two, even more angrier to them. Zhou Tai rushed forwards, coming between the two people and their possessed trooper. He unsheathed his sabre and cut at the same time, cutting through the armour and, unfortunately, killing the trooper. The two people behind him were shocked, but by what exactly, none of them know.
"That should stop them." Zhou Tai said, looking back to them.
Ranmaru and Cai Wenji caught up. Ranmaru slashed with his sword, taking out a few soldiers, and Wenji focused her magic into a strum of her harp, overloading the troopers system with electricity. In a few seconds, the squad of ten troopers were dead.
"If you want to live, you must come with us." Cai Wenji said, holding her hand out towards the two.
They looked at each other, then back to Cai Wenji and nodded in affirmation.
"But, first, do not kill any of our troops again. They are what is left of our forces." The man in black armour said.
Toshiie and Zuo Ci caught up, but caught the explanation from the black armoured man.
"We would have to listen to the outsiders. We cannot afford to lose precious allies in this time of turmoil." Zuo Ci explained, gaining a nod from each warrior there.
"We have to go back up and save a friend of ours." The woman in white said.
"Who is that?" Toshiie asked.
"Magoichi Saika." The man in black responded.
Toshiie soon began to see red on the edges of his vision. Magoichi is a friend of his as well, and no one shall kill him prematurely. He began to run up the hill and kill the serpent soldiers, or knock out the odd soldiers, like a man possessed.
"Go." Zhou Tai ordered.
The six ran up the hill, fighting all the way through. They reached the top, where they could still hear clashes of steel and the explosions of musket fire.
"Magoichi! Open up!" Black ordered.
"No.. can... do... Edward! About.. to... defeat.. this... monkey... BASTARD!" Magoichi responded.
A series of grunts were heard from inside. Edward and the woman rushed around to the south side of the fort and entered through the open gate there. They saw that Magoichi was still in a desperate fight with the monkey-man. That was until they saw that the marksman was breathing heavily, tired. The monkey swung his stick, Magoichi raising his musket to block it. But it was a feint, with the monkey-man diverting his swing from high to Magoichi's feet, successfully taking them out. A blade flicked out from the end, with the monkey stabbing Magoichi in the stomach.
"NOOO!" The woman shrieked upon seeing Magoichi fall.
The monkey pulled the blade out, making the wound flow freely. Edward tried to hold the woman back.
"Joan, calm yourself!"
Joan punched Edward's unarmored elbow and charged towards the monkey-man, pointing the blade of the spear in front of her. Edward sighed and charged into the fray with her, his shield out in front. Somehow, together, they managed to defeat the monkey-man and not kill any of their troops. With the monkey gone and their troops retreating somewhere, they turned their attention to Magoichi, who was slowly dying.
"Magoichi, please. Stay alive." Joan begged.
"I can't. You take... care, princess." Magoichi managed to wheeze out, before rolling his eyes back into his head and passing away.
Both of them lowered their heads, silently mourning their dead friend. Joan did some weird gesture on Magoichi's corpse and whispered something into his ear. Zuo Ci looked out over the battlefield to the south.
"What can you see, Mystic?" Cai Wenji asked.
"Wukong has retreated to the South East. The magic holding the army together has weakened. If we defeat Sun Wukong again, we may be able to free those under Kiyomori's control." Zuo Ci explained.
"We must go then. To save the others."
A mysterious figure was sitting on top of a hill, overlooking the progress of a certain army across the valley below him. He received an anonymous tip from someone that Kotarō Fūma would be here. A ninjatō was strapped to his back, in a black wooden scabbard. He would have revenge on the chaotic ninja.
The army of humans were facing off against the serpents. Right now, it looked like the humans are winning, but the person knew that anything can change in an instant. Suddenly, a pale skinned human with red hair appeared behind the army of humans. And it looks like this one is in control of his own mind.
"If you keep your eyes to the front, you lose sight to the back. They cannot be allowed to spread order. The winds of chaos say so."
The pale human soon attacked the human army, causing mass confusion within the ranks. The figure decided to break his cover and fight for the humans army. The figure jumped off of the ledge, using the valley walls to help slow his descent. When he reached the floor, he drew his ninjatō and began to charge at the pale human, knowing exactly who he was.
The figure swung downwards, but Kotarō caught the blade with the edge of his gauntlet. The combatants stated each other down.
"Who are you to defy the winds of chaos?"
"I am only known as the Dark Devil. Prepare to die, Kotarō."
"You cannot kill the wind, so you cannot kill me."
"We shall see, shinobi."
With that, they separated. Dark Devil was pointing his ninjatō at Kotarō, who just stood there confidently. Dark charged, swinging downwards and across to the right when he was in range. Kotarō simply leant out of the way and grabbed Dark's face, the talons cutting deep. In a display of unnatural strength, the Fūma ninja lifted Dark Devil up. Kotarō had his other hand bent, the talons on the gauntlet pointing towards Dark's chest. Dark lashed out with his feet, successfully hitting Kotarō in the face and dropping him.
Dark fell heavily on his back, the ground being as unforgiving as always. However, the army caught onto the ruckus made by the two combatants and they soon surrounded the two.
"Hmm. Strange. This doesn't normally happen." Kotarō mused.
"I prefer to say otherwise, demon."
"Hmph. We will see who wins soon enough."
After saying that, Kotarō seemingly vanished into thin air, along with all of his ninja troop. That meant that all of the troopers surrounding Dark Devil pointed their spears at him. He picked up his ninjatō and sheathed it, indicating that he wasn't here to harm them. A Chinese soldier was sneaking up behind him, and used the butt of his sword to knock him out.
Joan, Edward, Toshiie, Wenji, Ranmaru, Tai and Ci were running through cobblestone paths towards the fortress where Zuo Ci saw Sun Wukong retreat to with the English-French army. They came across a young man, covered in steel armour and wielding a greatsword that was about as tall as him. Although he seemed to want to fight, his eyes were dull and lifeless. Zuo Ci explained that it was Sun Wukong's magic that made this happen.
"For Lord Kiyomori." He droned, his voice toneless.
"You six go on ahead. I'll stay." Ranmaru said, holding his sword up.
The rest nodded and continued running, successfully past the heavily armoured kid and into what remains of a French stronghold. There, they saw the masses of English, French and serpent troops all gathered in one place. Zuo Ci split his cards apart, sending a gale of wind streaming towards the mass. A neat line showed Sun Wukong giving orders to the French and English officers. Without any further warning, Edward and Zhou Tai began to charge towards the monkey. The French and English officers turned onto the two combatants. Zhou Tai jumped over the six while Edward, knowing of John Fastolf's lack of coordinated footing, simply bashed through Fastolf. Said swordsman became knocked over, hitting his head on the cobblestones and knocking him out. The rest followed through, hoping to keep the officers at bay while Edward and Tai fought Sun Wukong.
Five minutes of fighting actually produced a result. Sun Wukong was defeated by the two swordsmen, allowing the English and French forces to recover from the magic. Wukong stood back up, only to be confronted by many spearheads pointing down at him. He only laughed, knowing the truth about what would happen next. He looked at Zhou Tai, who glared back at him.
"You may want to hurry. I think Kiyomori is about to send your lord to his DEATH!" Wukong yelled before disappearing into thin air.
Even though Zhou Tai didn't show his emotions on the surface, a quick glance into his eyes saw a deeply raging fire. He turned around, secured a horse, and rode out of the fortress.
"Uh, my head. What happened, though?" John Fastolf asked, sitting back up.
"You were under some sort of magic. Don't worry, though. You have been freed." Edward explained.
Responses from the officers either came in the form of "I'm sorry, my lord," or "I need your forgiveness, Maid," but both the recipients tried to reassure that it was alright. They heard footfalls from the north. The officers looked towards the sounds, seeing Ranmaru walking towards them, his sword slung over his shoulder and dragging the kid across the stones, clearly unconscious.
"Ranmaru, you live." Cai Wenji exclaimed, stating the obvious.
"Master Mitsuhide taught me. Now, we need to get this one to the main camp."
Edward looked at two of the sword horsemen, knowing that they would be more comfortable on foot rather than on horseback.
"You two, off of your horses. One for me, the other for Ranmaru!" He ordered.
"Yes, sire." They responded, dismounting.
They got their kite shields from the horse and directed their horse to either Edward or Ranmaru. Edward sheathed his sword and placed both onto the saddlebag. He took his lance off and mounted the horse, ordering the lancers to form up. Ranmaru threw the kid onto the horse's back, tying him to the horse, and mounted. He sped off to the main camp, leaving the rest to continue to charge up to this Kiyomori. Toshiie ran on ahead to see if anyone was in front. Since it turned out there was and a gate was closed, Toshiie fought and defeated the officer and opened the gates. A signal from Toshiie allowed a charge to happen.
Edward and all of the lancers rushed through, breaking the serpent army's lines quickly so that the forces behind them would finish off any stragglers. They came to the base of the mountain, where they joined up with other humans with the charge, and began to charge up the mountain. There was someone coming down the mountain track, tall and holding a familiar weapon in a familiar way to the one with the plumed helmet and spear. And, apparently, so did the troops.
"I-it's the God of War himself!" Some troops exclaimed, some dropping their weapons.
Richard Beauchamp slowly walked out in front of everyone, his war hammer being hefted over his shoulder. He stared down this "God of War" and held his war hammer down, ready for the fight.
"Come at me, War-God! Show me what you got!" He yelled.
The challenge gained the interest of the God of War. Holding out a hand for his squad to stay back, he walked forwards, unerringly calm. Plumed-head leant over to Beauchamp.
"What are you doing?" He whispered harshly.
"Challenging. I'd like to see how dangerous this guy actually is." Beauchamp whispered back.
The God of War stopped walking, initiating a stare down. Both veterans rushed, weapons raised. They came too close for their weapons to be effective. However, Beauchamp slid his hand up the hammer, coming close to the hammer head. He stayed close to the War-God, not allowing him to use his longer weapon. The War-God, however, kept dodging the head. So, Richard went low, sending the head into his stomach. The War-God bent over, winded. Beauchamp sidestepped and sent his armoured foot up, connecting with the War-God's face. A cracking of bone and steel meant that the War-God was knocked unconscious very quickly with a broken nose. Beauchamp slid his hand back down the handle and raised his hammer up high, ready to bring it down onto the skull of the God of War.
"STOP!"
Beauchamp didn't drop the hammer, but he didn't put it away. He looked at the source of the voice, seeing Plumed-head holding his hand out to stop the war veteran.
"If you kill Guan Yu, you kill one of the best strategic minds in the Three Kingdoms." He warned.
Richard seemed to understand the concept. He slowly dropped the hammer and walked back to behind the prince. A Chinese trooper ran up and tied Guan Yu up, rendering him useless. A nod from Plumed-head brought the fact that it was better to continue charging.
Edward reared his horse and charged through the enemy ranks along with the multitude of lancers, allowing the army to follow them up. They came up to a heavily armoured person, who was very bulky and wields a flail. The lancers bypassed the obvious officer, leaving him to face the multitude of enemies after the lancers.
John Fastolf and Marie stayed behind to fight the officer while the rest of the forces continued up the mountain. It was a tough fight, though. Any strikes they tried to make was only deflected by the tough steel armour, while any wild swings from the flail were dodged to avoid receiving a broken skull. One swing came dangerously close to knocking off Marie's head, but an axe swing from Bertrand du Guesclin chopped the flail head from the chain, making the weapon useless. John began to remember the oldest way to beat an armoured opponent. He flipped the sword around, holding the sword by the blade (pardon the pun) and began to pummel the living day lights out of the officer with his sword's guard and pommel. He soon became knocked out, relieving the threat for now. But a serpent soldier came up and slashed in a downwards arc at Marie. While it didn't come close to cutting clean through the left arm, it did slice through the mail and through some muscle, making the arm bleed profusely.
John Fastolf took revenge for the underhanded snake (gees, I'm rolling out the puns) and slit the throat before checking Marie's wound. He ripped off a section of his sleeve and covered the wound, preventing it from bleeding more.
"My thanks." Marie said.
"Anything to help a lady in distress." John replied, holding out a hand to help Marie up.
Marie took his hand and was pulled back up to her feet. However, she fell forwards slightly and fell even more into John's arms. Blushing, she looked up to John's face and saw him shocked at the event.
"If you two lovebirds are finished, we must get on with the battle!" Bertrand yelled.
Marie laughed at the old veteran, pushing her way back up to her feet and tested her arm to see if it was still ok to use. It was, so she picked her shield back up and resumed the charge with the rest of the army.
The army just got up to the mountain top. They saw an entire horde of serpents and one tall man with one gigantic bracelet. Zuo Ci, in what must've been a rare display of rage, began to run through the serpents with dazzling displays of tarot card mastery and the felling of foes. The remainder of the army followed the mystic, hoping to relieve the stress from the mystic's withered frame. Zuo Ci appeared to right in front of Kiyomori and a duel ensued between them.
Shouts and the splitting of air was ringing out across the plain. Arrows from English volleys fell many serpents at once, but the Chinese and Japanese troops fell most of the serpent forces. It soon came down to Zuo Ci's defeat or victory. A swing from the beads was countered with a wall of cards, and vice versa. A multitude of cuts from Ci's cards sent Kiyomori right into the ground. However, Kiyomori was laughing, but it was a laugh that reminded everyone of demons.
"You won't catch me." He said.
Plumed-head tried to impale Kiyomori with his spear, but it was already too late. The demon disappeared, his prayer beads creating a small portal which he slunk into and dissipated into thin air.
"We still failed!" Plumed-head yelled.
"Peace, Ma Chao. Remember this, Kiyomori cannot do much now. We only need Da Ji to help us revert the Hydra's appearing." Zuo Ci explained.
Ma Chao nodded, understanding. He turned to Edward and Joan, both of who just slumped to the ground exhausted. He walked over to them, planting his spear before them.
"I would like to thank you for your help today." He said, sitting down with them.
"We were attacked by them. We had to repay that debt by attacking them back." Edward replied.
A series of many footsteps came up to the gates. John, Marie and Bertrand were standing with the rest of the army, and they did not look happy.
"We missed the final battle?!" John yelled.
"Yes, you twat. It was a glorious battle." Richard responded.
John only screamed into the air. He threw his hat to the ground and kicked it. The action caused an eruption of laughter to sweep through the English, knowing of Fastolf's little tantrums of the glory battles.
"We would like it if you would join us for our fight against the Hydra." Ma Chao proposed.
Joan and Edward stood up, causing Ma Chao to do the same.
"We would be honoured to assist you." Edward said.
"As long as war would end, yes. The French and English would fight." Joan continued.
A small circle of golden light came down from the heavens. When the light dissipated, a beautiful woman was left in its wake. Ma Chao seemed to know this woman.
"Kaguya, take all humans to the Camp." Ma Chao ordered.
Kaguya bowed and waved her piece of a tree, enveloping all those on the battlefield in a soft blue glow. A bright light in their eyes transported them to another place, but they never saw it.
It didn't matter, though. They won and survived.