The Assault on Liaoxiang, Part Three
Night fell, and even as darkness began to sweep over the land, Nayu’s focus remained clear as a bell, the same emotions that had run strong at Xianfung, and even earlier at the small village besieged by giants, now burned even brighter. With a concerned eye, looked to the gate under his feet, as the last of the refugees from the city trickled out, the last few pieces of sand at the end of an immense avalanche that was now long outside the city gates to the south, fleeing hard.
Ancestors protect them, he whispered a silent prayer, as a stiff wind finally came from the south, rushing from behind towards the towering storm clouds to their front, the setting sun seemingly setting them ablaze...
“The clerics of Shenyang are now in place,” he heard a sharp yet feminine voice say over the sharp whistle of the growing wind. He turned, and Yari Ai seemed to stiffen slightly under his gaze. He noticed immediately a change, and gave her a smile.
“Did someone twist your arm into wearing that armor?” Nayu asked, and Yari Ai gave a rather sheepish smile, looking down momentarily at the battlements under their feet. The move made her chain armor jingle.
“A little,” she replied. “I believe my temple elders called my battle activities without armor, ‘foolish.’ Though,” she added, “this armor isn’t too bad. Its rather light, so I can still move if needbe... I refuse to wear the heavy lamellar that the soldiers wear.” She made a face. “Too restricting.”
Nayu nodded. “Did you enjoy the city?” he asked, momentarily looking out at the advancing thunderhead, before back at his friend. They hadn’t seen each other since the small group’s arrival in Liaoxiang... considering Yari Ai’s past, they’d collectively agreed it was far too dangerous for her to accompany Nayu and Felonca into the Jade City. Her presence might have not only endangered herself, but her two friends as well. Their other companions, Selim and Meiji, had both thought it best they didn’t appear in the Jade City as well... Meiji as he was interested in exploring the ‘cultural aspects of the capital,’ and Selim because, evidently, he was a known face with a reputation among some within the Jade City...
“Well, after Meiji and Selim disappeared to who knows where, I only got to the temple of Shenyang two days ago,” Yari Ai confessed with a lop-sided grin. “After the Imperial agents that had been tailing me finally stopped their stalking my every move, but that’s another story,” she waved off a situation that sounded to Nayu like it could have been a tale in and of itself. “I’m guessing they must have received word from above that the palace situation had changed a bit?” The smile became a mischevious grin.
“Likely,” Nayu looked past Yari Ai towards Felonca, who was busily directing soldiers along the battlements, even as her own father lectured her on how
she needed to be wearing heavier armor. “Looks like the person who got the word out is getting the same lecture you got.”
Yari Ai started to look over as well, before a sudden brilliant flash flared up before their eyes, clearing well within the outer walls of the city.
So... Hu calls himself clever, Nayu thought, watching as the first explosion of a
fireball was followed by more, rippling, rumbling from just inside the outermost of the walls of Liaoxiang. Just as Nayu predicted, Hu had begun his attack by sneaking in scholars and mages to attack from behind where he thought the defenders were.
And around Nayu, the defenders, all safely further inside the city along the inner walls, stopped their conversations, all eyes watching the magical barrage that slowly seemed to engulf the outermost reaches of the city. Instantly, within Nayu’s mind, a sea of messages sprang, as the Imperial scholars flashed reports to each other, from one mind to the next.
”They have begun their attack. Middle walls and Middle City unaffected.”
“Scholars appear to have teleported into the city in groups of three to five, with small retinue of bodyguards each. It would be logical that the bodyguards are well trained.”
“Hu’s mages have begun to teleport again.”
They’re now going to jump into the Middle City... they realize we aren’t on the outermost walls... Nayu mused, adding that thought to the messages ranging among the scholars, before adding another.
”Once we know they’re within the Middle City, we spring our own trap.” Moments later, new flares arose along the walls of the Middle City, as Hu’s scholars teleported in and immediately blasted the walls. It would be only minutes before they realized they’d hit nothing... a window of only minutes where they would be confused...
”Now,” Nayu mentally transmitted, and within seconds he heard voices along the wall barking commands.
“Felonca!” Nayu called, and his friend spun around from her staring at the new flares along the walls. “We’re going in! Tell your family members!” His friend nodded, and started to turn, before she suddenly stopped, faced Nayu again, and snapped a salute...
“Wa-Fengs!” Felonca shouted a moment later, catching the attention of her father, uncle and cousin, “We ride!” By the time she reached them, she instinctively felt that Nayu and Yari Ai were just behind them.
Part of her wanted to ask Nayu again if this
teleportation was safe. Sure, Hu’s people were doing it en masse, but then again, Hu seemed to have an abject disregard for life. Nayu had never displayed magic this powerful before... starting fires and creating lightning bolts was impressive in its own right, but being able to move people great distances in the blink of an eye...
“Close your eyes,” she heard him command. “When we arrive, we should be directly in the middle of a group of enemies. After that, you all know what to do,” he said, even as she felt the first tendrils of magic beginning to whirl about them, spinning around her again and again, a dull roar coming to her ears.
There seemed to be a bright flash, bright enough that it showed through her closed eyelids.
An illusion of some kind, she realized, remembering Hu’s scholars had not shown any flash to her normal eyes. She felt a sensation of falling without end, of spinning about furiously, twisting, as if she was being stretched. Just as suddenly as it started, the dull roar ended, and now her ears were assaulted with the noise of yelling, and the crackle of flames, her nose assaulted with the smell of burnt wood and sulfur.
Felonca opened her eyes. They had teleported in the midst of a residential street, wooden homes surrounding them on all sides. A few blocks away, flames rose from one of the preemptive
fireballs Hu’s people had launched, the orange glow dull in the growing mist of the night. And standing the street in front of them, stood four men clad in robes, looks of shock and horror on their faces.
“Get them!” Nayu shouted, and as Felonca began to draw her bow, she heard the
twang of Meiji’s bow in the air. A moment later, one of Hu’s scholars toppled over, an arrow coming from his shoulder. The other three looked at their downed comrade, and started to make arcane symbols over their heads, only moments before Felonca’s arrow ripped through the neck of one, while Felonxi and Dian shredded the other two with their blades. Meiji finished the last one with his scimitar with ease.
“Well, that wasn’t so bad!” Dian laughed, wiping his blade on the robe of the scholar he’d decapitated. “Poor bastards!”
“Remember,” Nayu said, looking around carefully, “there are escorts to these spellcasters. We might have to destroy them as well.”
Felonca sniffed, her hybrid nose picking of something strange in the air. Above the smells of sulfur, of burnt wood, and now of blood, she smelled something else... something faint, that she’d smelled once before.
It almost smells like...
At that moment, Felonca saw a momentary shape in the shadows between two houses, and had only an instant’s warning before she felt something big and heavy, like a crossbow bolt, whoosh only mere inches from her head. The next second, she heard her uncle cry out in pain, as four strange creatures leapt from the shadows between the houses.
Each reminded Felonca of the rakshasa they had fought long ago... a tiger’s head on their bodies, save their fur was entirely jet black. Their hands were jointed backwards, just like a rakshasa’s, though instead of robes and magical components, each wore midnight black chainmail, and held great and wicked kukris in their twisted hands. In the light from the nearby fires, Felonca saw the blades gleam with an unearthly shine.
“Poison!” she called out, backing towards the other members of their strike group. She took only a moment to glance back, and saw that her uncle was only slowly climbing to his feet, a crossbow bolt wedged into his shoulder.
He’s been poisoned! “Yari Ai! Look to my uncle!” Felonca barked, her eyes returning to the nearest of the assassins before narrowing.
You’ll regret tangling with me! she snarled.
The rakshasa directly before her slowly stalked forward, moving slightly to the right, then the left, its eyes watching for any weakness as Felonca quietly echoed the moves. Her brain heard Meiji’s voice start in a song, and as she sank back into her training, she had enough time to wonder if her cousin was going to make the rakshasa’s giggle like he’d done with the gnomes so long ago.
At that moment, the rakshasa struck.
It leapt forward, both its kukri’s poised to strike at her chest, yet with the speed and grace of her ancestry, Felonca side-stepped the blow, before whipping her body around hard, putting every ounce of power into her warfans. One caught the rakshasa in the side, ripping open his lower back, while the other caught his neck. The assassin tumbled to the ground, and in seamless motion with her first strike, Felonca finished him off.
She looked up, in time to see her father shatter the kukri of another assassin, the poor rakshasa backing away as the huge panther hengeyokai gave pursuit, his far longer and larger sword poised to end the struggle, while Yari Ai and Uncle Dian, disabled as he might be, held off another assassin. The third lay on the ground before Meiji, shaking and trembling uncontrollably, as the bard sang.
Nayu felt the magical power that he’d summoned quickly die back down, as it became obvious his assistance wasn’t needed.
I could use that lightning bolt at some other point this night, he thought, watching Felonxi cut down the assassin in front of him, as the assassin by Meiji suddenly leapt up, and began to simply run in circles.
Insanity, Nayu thought, looking at the bard’s work.
Rather appropriate...
”Hello, young Wakabayashi...”
Nayu immediately froze. The voice was thin, reedy, and raspy, not belonging to any scholar that Nayu knew. Nayu felt something, someone pushing on the edges of his mind, ever so slightly. He turned, and through the mist far up the street, he could see two brilliant blue eyes, blazing deep into his soul.
”It seems the paper tiger has come forth...” Nayu shot back, now recognizing the mental voice of the camp commandant, the same rakshasa that had slain Liu long ago. The rakshasa that had fled before they had a chance to extract their revenge.
”Insolent little brat!” the voice rasped, the blue eyes growing brighter and brighter.
”Do you not know I have the power to crush your pathetic little mind! To rip it to shreds as I please?”
Go ahead and try,” Nayu let himself smirk.
You don’t realize what I have with me... For a moment, he felt a sharp push on his mind, as if someone was launching a battering ram against the gates of this thoughts. He felt Kongxi’s cap warming on his head, and he smiled as he heard the rakshasa scream from up the road, the cap not only deflecting his attempt to break into Nayu’s mind, but attacking the rakshasa in return. The brilliant blue eyes disappeared for a moment, then returned, far dimmer.
“You insolent little brat...” the rakshasa’s voice hissed audibly.
Nayu smirked again, feeling the magic he had dismissed rapidly returning. A moment later, black, swirling bolts of energy lashed from Nayu’s hand, dashing into the mist, and wrapping around those brilliant blue eyes. Nayu felt himself grow stronger, more powerful, as he felt the magical powers of the rakshasa being sucked away from the rakshasa, to be tossed into the infinite void. Once again, the brilliant blue eyes faded.
Nayu started to walk towards those eyes, even as he heard the noise of Felonca leaping into battle with the assassin still threatening Yari Ai and her uncle.
”You’ve caused a great deal of pain,” Nayu spoke to the voice as the rakshasa finally became visible, his ragged and mangy white fur seemingly wilted from Nayu’s attack. “But now,” the sorcerer said aloud, feeling another magical storm building in his hands, “its time for you to die.”
Nayu lashed his hand out yet again, and this time a crackling bolt of lightning, filled with all the malice and anger he could muster, launched from his fingertips straight at the rakshasa. But where Nayu expected the creature to collapse, arcs of electricity running over its body, instead a ring on the creature’s right hand glowed unnaturally bright. Nayu focused more power into his lightning bolt, only to see the ring grow brighter still, until suddenly, a flash leapt from the ring, and Nayu screamed.
The sorcerer found himself laying on his back on the cobblestone street, his robes scorched, small wisps of smoke rising from his charred clothing. Around him, he smelled the thick odor of ozone. Every muscle in his body screamed in pain, and every slight movement that brought his clothes rustling over his skin produced great pain.
My lightning bolt... he must have reflected it back at me, Nayu realized, forcing himself to sit up, as he desperately tried to fight through the pain to tap his magic.
I need to defend myself... he thought, expecting to see the rakshasa running at him.
Instead, the beast merely stood, rooted in the same spot, its body bent, wracked by the
enervation Nayu had launched at it earlier. Its breaths came rapidly, its wheezing so loud that Nayu could clearly hear the gasps. The sorcerer also heard the noise of running feet, and felt behind him the presence of Felonca and her family, the Wa-Feng already arraying themselves, readying to run at the creature and cut it down.
Yet despite its decrepit state, despite its certain doom, the beast had a smile on its lips.
Nayu frowned, before suddenly his eyes widened, as even through the pain, he saw why the creature still had a thin, bloody grin on its lips, as just barely visible in the mist was a titan, a figure of legend...
And Nayu fought his hardest to remain conscious... to warn his friends...
Felonca’s first thought was her friend, and she rushed up to Nayu, kneeling beside him.
Nayu! Be alright! Please! His robes had been badly burned, and it was apparent the burns continued underneath to his own skin. His own breathing was shallow and weak. Before Felonca could call, Yari Ai was beside her, already beginning healing ministrations.
“Hold on, Nayu,” Felonca whispered, putting a hand on her friend’s forehead before gently touching his face.
Hold on! Don’t die on me! You can’t die on me! “Yari Ai will help you.”
“Felonca...” she heard Nayu whisper, before a spate of coughing robbed him of his voice. His eyes seemed to flicker for a moment, as he momentarily slipped in and out of consciousness. Finally, his eyes opened, and it looked as if it was requiring all of his strength to keep himself from slipping away.
“I’m right here, Nayu,” she said encouragingly.
Please... hold on for just a moment, until Yari Ai can complete her healing!
“It’s...” he managed to hiss, before a series of unintelligible words came from his mouth, then his eyes closed. For a moment, Felonca panicked, till she saw that his chest still rose and fell in ragged breaths.
“He’s unconscious. It is probably for the best,” Yari Ai said quietly, before her voice rose in quiet prayer.
It is for the best... he’ll feel less pain that way, Felonca tried to tell herself, yet the pain was real, and deep, so much so that she didn’t, couldn’t focus on the words he had tried to say. Instead, as she rose, she looked directly at the rakshasa, her eyes burning with hatred and rage.
“You’ve hurt me and mine for the last time,” she hissed, her warfans opening with an audible, deadly
click.
Shiver! I want to see you shiver before I slash your throat! she mentally screamed. Despite her wishes, the rakshasa did not shiver, did not quake, but instead still half-stood, its thin, weak form still smiling.
“You are foolish, Wa-Feng!” it laughed, the gesture making its emaciated form shake. A single, weak clawed finger pointed across the space between them, towards her family, assembled in ragged line. “All of you are fools,” the voice continued, “and you’ve finally fallen into our trap!”
“Our trap?” Felonca’s father growled, “I only see one of you, little wretch, though as soon as my sword’s done, you’ll be in two pieces!”
“Confident Felonxi,” the rakshasa grinned, “You were always a loud-mouth in my camp. Now, let us see how well the loud mouth can be backed by a sharp blade!”
Felonca’s eyes, like the others, were so focused on the rakshasa that she didn’t notice the looming shadow in the growing darkness until the immense figure pushed past the rakshasa. The man was huge, fully nine feet tall, his form shrouded in huge lamellar armor that positively glowed with magical power. His green eyes bore directly into Felonca, as his tiger lips curled back into a ferocious snarl at her scent. In one hand, a katana that seemed to scream of a keen and sharp edge glinted in the night. In the other hand, a rough and pitted greataxe hung like a sword of doom.
“My dearest Felonca,” General Hsiu, ex-commandant of the Hsiu-lan Military Academy, grinned, bearing his fangs. “I have been waiting months for this day...”
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Nayu and Felonca’s players were very clever... they guessed well at what the Langya plan would be, and developed a counterattack plan that worked well... let the Langya scholars teleport in, then surprise them with groups of scholars and warriors, hopefully killing off many of their spellcasters before the battle was too far along.
The fight with the spellcasters was, shall we say, a classic example of “when low HP wizards meet damage inflicting fighters.” It was quick, and brutal... the spellcasters rolled horrible on their initiatives, and as a result, were mowed down.
In comparison, their nazaruthe rakshasa escorts, specialized assassins, had high initiatives, and managed to poison Dian, as well as cut Yari Ai and hold up Felonca and Felonxi long enough for the rakshasa who killed poor Liu long ago to try to take on Nayu mano-a mano. Nayu’s enervation robbed the rakshasa of quite a bit of his spell power, but then Nayu’s ill-fated lightning bolt (the rakshasa had a ring that would reflect one lighting bolt spell) knocked the sorcerer down from full strength, to, if I remember correctly something along the lines of 4 or 5 hp. Not to mention there was no way he would come anywhere close to passing
that concentration check.
As this happened, Felonca and gang took care of the last of the assassins, and were ready to turn their attention to the rakshasa, when, lo and behold, the evil Master Hsiu makes his appearance...
Speaking of which...
Here's an picture of Master Hsiu Li, as created long ago by an artist on these boards.