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UncleShoveit Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2006 8:00 pm
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Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2006 7:34 pm
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"Where's Commander Guan Yu!?!" a distressed Mi Zhu hollered. A flaming arrow came streaming over his head as it stuck some resources instantly lighting them on fire. Mi Fang and Chen Deng immediately ran towards it and started beating out the flames. The Shu soldiers were gearing themselves from the unknown assault that came out of nowhere. There were flaming arrows volleying over the castle walls, flying into the soldier's shields. Mi Zhu looked over the wall once more, trying to see who it could be that is attacking them. Cheng Gui, the old father of Cheng Deng came running out to Mi Zhu to help him. "Mi Zhu! What is it you see? Do you even see anything in the darkness?" Cheng Gui asked with a raspy concerned tremble. Mi Zhu tried as hard as he could, but every attempt was met by a flaming arrow coming at him. Unable to see it in the dark that fast, Mi Zhu called up some archers as well. They ran up the tower as Mi Zhu commanded. Mi Zhu had his arm up in a signalling form. As he stared a tiny bit, suddenly while peeking a tiny bit, he saw a waving cloth in the air. With that, Mi Zhu immediately pointed at it. The archers fired their arrows which were covered in flames, soaring into the darkness. As Mi Zhu had guessed, the arrows hit something. It hit the enemy banner. "Ha ha! Now we shall see who this is!" Mi Zhu stared. But to his amazement, the name was of noone he had ever seen. "What is it Mi Zhu? What do you see? You know my old eyes can't see that far!" Chen Gui complained. The words that Mi Zhu uttered showed signs of confusion as well. A sign of uncertainty. He then uttered the best he could::
"Dong Tai?"
(I don't know. It sounds the pretty close to Date's name and sounds Chinese enough.)
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UncleShoveit Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2006 9:27 pm
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((-giggles- Dong Tai. Oh, that amused me so!))
"That's it! Archers! First rank shoot! Relaod! Second rank shoot! Reload! Keep at it until I give the command to stop!"
The rows of samurai lined the shores of the river that surrounded Xia Pi castle, aiming volley after volley over the castle's large outer walls. Behind the rows of the archers, many of which were currently armed with longbows and fire arrows rode what looked to be a boy upon a dapple grey stallion. He couldn't have been older than fifteen, making the sight appear almost comical. A boy, leading this army of warriors? Only a fool would entrust someone so young to such a large host of men.
But Date Masamune was no ordinary boy, oh no. He was a boy who lived and breathed battle, and there was something about the rigid and proud manner from his seat upon his horse, and the ferocity at which he barked commands. His single brown eye scanned the castle and surrounding area before him, plans of attack and defense formations already flying and formulating within his mind. He had been late, not to mention seperated from the main brunt of the force led by Nobunaga. How he had gotten himself allied with Nobunaga for the time being was a long story, and not a terribly interesting one. Yet the deal had come with a promise of battle and conquest, and so here Date was.
And being seperated from the main force wasn't so terribly awful or scary. In fact, unless these guys had help come soon, the battle was going to be a terribly boring one from Date's point of view. Lay siege, kill everyone inside, claim the place as your own, yadda yadda yadda. It seemed a good defensive position overall, with a good connection to the sea and rivers, however. Still, this was a very strange land to Date, who had no knowledge of the surrounding area. That could lead to trouble, though he doubted it. Capturing a few men of rank and looting for maps would likely clear the problem right up. Then he could get message to Nounaga... wherever the hells he might be.
Screw that train of thought. He had a battle to fight. A boring siege, yes, but it was still a fight.
As if to remind him of the fact he was participating in a stalemate of a battle, one of his advosirs rode up to him, tenatively awaiting permission to speak. Date permitted the man to talk with a short nod, to which the advisor responded with an akward bow from his mount.
"Date-sama..." he began, picking his words lightly so as not to ignite his lord's infamously short temper. "Date-sama, do you intend to-" he broke off to cringe and duck as the castle began shooting arrows of their own, not knowing that he and his lord lay out of reach of the projectiles. "Do you intend to just sit here and lay siege to this castle? What of Nobunaga?"
Date responded with a scoff and sharp laugh. "What of him? For the moment, we are going to take this castle!" in a grandiose motion that showed an almost childlike excitement from the young lord, he motioned to the river. "Once I manage to create enough confusion within, we shall attempt to flood the river. The fools built the castle in a flood plain! We can isolate them, maybe even drown the imbeciles. Then we'll attack. Just have patience!"
Have patience. Odd words to hear from one such as Date. Normally he'd either be all but jumping from his saddle to attack the castle head-on. But here he was showing an unusual amount of patience. Perhaps it was simply from the fact that he was fighting unknown enemies in an unknown land. He could be using the oppourtunity to sum these men up, learn of what types of weapons they both had and lacked. Get to know the enemy. Sum them up. Then, exploit their weaknesses.
Turning sharply from his cringing advisor, Date galloped back to keep along the back line of men, resuming his act of barking out orders. If his advisors didn't like what he was doing, then piss on them. They were fools anyways, at least when it came to battles. Date trusted no one but himself for the most part on that topic. And he certainly had some thinking to do... Like how to use the waters to his advantage. True, he had just arrogantly spoken of flodding the place, but he was going to need a LOT of water for that. Where was a typhoon when you needed one...?
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Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 5:53 pm
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UncleShoveit Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 9:42 pm
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Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 10:20 pm
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UncleShoveit Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 10:48 pm
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Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 11:51 am
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Date was beginning to grow impatient. It was obvious to see, since he kept biting his lip in an irritated manner whilst eyeing the ramparts of the walled castle, fidgeting with his horse's reins all the while as he did so. By the gods, seiges were so dull! Particularly a stalemate such as this one. Maybe he should try pepping things up and set these foreigners into a panic of sorts? That would be most fun, he thought, gaze drifting toawrds the small group samurai that stood gathered behind the archers,e ach with a musket in their hands. He didn't have a large supply of gunpowder or bullets with him, being that he had expected to be united with Nobunaga's forces now. Oh well. He could manage.
"You!" He called out, pointing to three of the musketeers. He didn't know their names, not off of the top of his head. But he had seen them training before, and had known of them to be excellent shots. "I want you three to spread out amongst the archers. Find gaps in the ranks and fill them. I want you to shoot a few archers down. If you see anyone important-looking as well, shoot them. Be careful with your ammunition, though! What you have is all we have got now. Make your shots count!"
With a sharp wave, he sent the men to hurry off and blend in with the ranks of archers. These men obiously didn't have muskets or any form of firearm. So why not see how these people reacted to these weapons? Could be fun.
"FIRE!" He shouted, and three loud BANGS of muskets being fired echoed in response. Even from this distance, Date could hear screams of pain and surprise rise up from the castle. Oh good. Just what he wanted. A slow, but obviously pleased smirk flooded the young warlord's face. There. That should keep things interesting for at least a little while longer...
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Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 12:42 pm
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Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 1:09 pm
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Good. Those volleys of bullets had done a sufficent amount of damage... not to mention a goodly amount of panic. The smirk still plastered across Date's face, he let out a shout to stop the muskets from firing. They did as they were commanded, the smoke from their musket barrels drifting in the light breeze in an almost enchanting manner.
Now seemed to be as good a time as any to try out a little something Date had been wanting to do ever since he landed. Picking up the reins to his dappled grey horse, he rode forth, galloping back and forth alon the outer gates to Xia Pi, his small frame held rigid in an arrogant and challenging manner.
"I'm only giving you this one chance!" He called out, loud enough for those atop the gates and walls could hear. "Surrender! Surrender or I'll take this castle by force!"
Did they understand him, he wondered? Maybe. Maybe not. But if the words were unkown,t he underlaying message was clear. Or perhaps it was mistaken for a challenge. Surrender or a fight. Hm. Either way, the result was bound to please the small Japanese warlord. Now, if only they would answer. He could wait a moment. Any longer, however, and his archers were all prepped to continue firing. The musketeers, too. So far his losses had been minimal, yet he was unaware of how strong the forces within the castle walls were. It didn't seem like much, though. Pity, really...
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Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 1:17 pm
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Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 1:49 pm
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Ah! A challenge! It was obvious from the posture of this man, and of the weapon he carried, that he was not here to negotiate surrender. And he looked strong. Very strong. And... big. Date, having not been blessed with fierce physical stature or mass strength, knew that he would have to be careful in fighting this one.
Or fight dirty. He had done it before, and he would do it again. Honor in battle meant little to him, so long as he won.
His hands going for the twin wooden swords that he carried, Date slowly came forward as well, steering his mount with his knees. "So it's a challenge?" He called out, grinning. "Very well! I accept!"
At that, he unsheathed his swords, leaping down from his horse. Mounted combat would do him little good. While he was good at fighting from the back of a horse, it was something that required strength. In that, he already knew he would lose to this man. No. He would have to rely on his agility for this battle. Not to mention the two pistols he had dangling at his waist. They only held one shot apiece, but if things got desperate, he wasn't going to hold back on them. No, no.
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Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 2:03 pm
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Guan Yu eyed the man as he got off his horse. Inside he chuckled some at how short this man was, but he remained calm and cool about this battle. He watched the short man move and unsheathe two very strange looking swords. They were made of wood, which wasn't too uncommon a sight, but their shape was completely different from anything he had seen other than the sword of Zhou Tai, but he knew that Zhou Tai was the only person, to his knowledge, that had been across the sea and came back with such a weapon. Perhaps these people came from the land that Zhou Tai visited! Should he survive this battle, Guan Yu knew who to go to for information about these enemy weapons.
The battle had begun and instead of immediately dismounting his horse, Guan Yu thought that he'd give this small man a test of speed. He kicked the flanks of his horse and galloped forward at great speed. He lined up his direction so that he would put the man on his right side. As he rode by he slashed down at the man, not knowing if he hit him or not, then after passing him by he stood up in his saddle and jumped off, turning 180 degrees and landing on one foot and one knee on the ground with his weapon to the side. Kneeled down he was nearly the same height as this man, but as soon as he stood up he saw how short he really was!
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Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 2:53 pm
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Date dove to avoid being hit by Guan Yu's spear, rolling on the ground like a professional tumbler or acrobat. the large crescent moon crest on his helmet make it a little difficult, but Date managed to avoid the brunt of the large man's strike, reciveving only a tear upon his small half-cape. However, he himself was uninjured, though more than a little miffed at his akward dodge and consequent bruised ego.
Nonetheless, he picked himself up, turning to focus a one-eyed glare at the other man. He was big, bigger than Date had first guessed him to be. This fight was not going to be an easy one, even for someone who could be as shrewd and reckless such as him.
Keeping his distance, Date circled the large man, moving with as much caution as he could maintain while still keeping as alert as ever. Let the man strike first. Wear him down a bit. See how he fights, bigger often meant slower, so Date could probably easily keep himself dodging the blows, perhaps even parry them and get a strike in from time to time. But he would let the giant strike first.
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Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 5:18 pm
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