Xia Pi - Recollection

[UncleShoveit]

(At the moment, Date as arrived late and is attacking Xia Pi after landing. Guan Yu, Chen Gui, Chen Deng, Mi Fang, and Mi Zhu are residing in the city at the moment, defending with their lives.)  

[UncleShoveit]

"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.)  

[Anvion]

((-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...?  

[Shidobu Cloud]

((Gah, writer's block.... sorry for the short post.))

Guan Yu rode out from the inner part of the castle and approached his men. He met up with Mi Zhu and said, "That is not a name I know... How are our men doing? Are they holding well? I am thinking of going out there to face this new enemy head on but our men need to be up to it."  

[UncleShoveit]

Mi Zhu turned to see Guan Yu coming to see them. After hearing what Guan Yu had in mind, he instantly panicked.
"Of course it would be a bad idea to rush out there now! With them continuously firing flaming arrows, you might not even make it across to them!" Mi Zhu yelled in fear. "We need a for sure plan to keep them from constantly firing those arrows!" Mi Zhu began pondering a plan. Cheng Deng and Mi Fang of course were still putting out fire that kept spreading after the arrows kept shooting over and the soldiers helped of course. Cheng Gui too started pondering as hard as he could.  

[Shidobu Cloud]

"Hmm...." Guan Yu thought for a moment as he deflected a few arrows, "Perhaps if I were to go out alone. I could stop any arrows from hitting me and break into their lines to cause some confusion. Meanwhile our forces would fire our own arrows at their flanks, causing them to cluster in the middle as I cut through them. What do you think?" Yu stroked his long beard as he thought about the plan.  

[UncleShoveit]

"Oh...but I fear for your safety for such a plan. If we bring our archers all up here, they could possibly rain arrows down non-stop to defend you as best as they could. With your talents, I'm sure you cando it actually....It's just....if something happens to you, I would NEVER be able to face Lord Liu Bei again!" Mi Zhu broke out. Cheng Gui tried to look over, but was only met with incoming arrows, which he had to duck from them.
"Well we better do something fast! My son and your brother won't be able to keep uo with the arrows forever!" Cheng Gui let out in fear for their safety.  

[Anvion]

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...  

[Shidobu Cloud]

Guan Yu nodded to his officers and was about to ride off but then he hear several loud bangs and froze. "What was that noise?" He said and paused for a moment. He had heard similar sounds before. Gunpowder. It was unmistakable, but how were they using gunpowder? The walls weren't destroyed and there weren't any fires anywhere other than what the fire arrows had done. He looked to the walls and saw several archers fall dead. He ordered a soldier to retrieve one of their bodies.

The soldier made his way to the top of the wall and, while dodging several arrows, managed to grab hold of one of the men who had gotten shot. He pulled the body down to safety but just as he was about to reach Guan Yu an arrow planted itself into the back of his head. The soldier fell dead at Guan Yu's feet with the body of the archer at his side. Guan Yu looked on and frowned. He looked at the archer's body and inspected his wound. It was unlike anything he had ever seen! A round wound that was smoking slightly. The flesh around the wound was soft, almost mush-like, indicating high impact. He had seen this condition of flesh before on the men who had been struck lethally by a club or some other object of blunt force, but this wound was delivered from a distance. Guan Yu thought for a moment and figured that it had something to do with the gunpowder explosion that he heard.

With this new predicament Guan Yu was at first cautious to see what would happen but also excited to see what kind of weapon would cause such damage. "We need to see what kind of weapon did this. We need to be careful! For Brother's sake we need to defend this castle and learn of this new enemy! Watch for the ones with the new weapons, find out where they are! I will go out but we need this information before I do so."  

[Anvion]

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...  

[Shidobu Cloud]

Guan Yu suddenly turned at the sound of a man's voice. He ran to the top of the wall to look down to him and listened. He couldn't understand what he was saying, but he looked like someone who was either challenging those inside the castle or asking to negotiate. Yu jumped down from the wall and ran to his horse. "Change of plan, keep the archers ready. I am going out to meet this man. It's time we get to know our enemy!" Guan Yu opened the gate just enough for he and his horse to exit then the gate slammed shut behind him.

He rode out slowly, blue dragon in hand, and called out, "I, Guan Yu, Prefect of Xia Pi, accept your challenge!" He yelled loud and clear, hoping that the man would understand him. He assumed that it was a challenge that he wanted so it was a challenge that he would get.  

[Anvion]

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.  

[Shidobu Cloud]

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!  

[Anvion]

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.  

[Shidobu Cloud]

Guan Yu slowly approached the circling man. His armor was unlike anything he had seen before. It looked rather light but still effective for battle, perfect for someone of his speed and stature. He then noticed Date's missing eye. At first he thought of ways to exploit the blind side but then remembered how Xiahou Dun fought perfectly fine with only one eye and if this man was a general of this army then he must have adapted the same way that Dun had. Instead of thinking too far into this newcommer Guan Yu decided to attack using one of his favorite manuvers. He quickly rushed toward his opponent and spun his glaive in front of him like a propeller (think like his triangle move in DW).