Tears of Blood
“May the clouds
of the Legion Storm blow away the scenes of our crimes, may the hero
born of purity crush the animosity between us, and may the spirits of
the just shine like stars…”
Toyotomi Kubodera
wrote in his journal, written in his own blood. The battle was more
intense than anything anyone could have ever imagined; Kubodera had a
gash in his arm, inflicted by an enemy soldier’s katana. His blood
was all he had to write with, blood and a piece of straw. Still, he
continued to fight on after he wrote the passage, jumping onto his
gigantic, elephant-sized Hercules Beetle and ordered the 12-ton
insect to charge headlong into a crowd of enemies, goring and
mangling their bodies with the insect’s horns and huge, trampling
feet, sending the remaining enemies into a panic. Still, the Basilisk
Warrior Code demanded that the soldiers fought until their dying
breath. Some of the soldiers, armed with rifles, sat on the ledge
overlooking the Forlorn Valley Gorge, with their rifles trained
squarely on Kubodera’s head. “Both Eyes Open…” one of the
snipers whispered, as he pulled the trigger, but missed as he let fly
with his rifle. Kubodera jerked his head around, his distinctive
antler-decorated kabuto helmet pointing in the terrified sniper’s
direction. Drawing his bow and arrow, Kubodera launched three arrows
and once, each one hitting their respective target’s head; they
paid the ultimate price for their inaccuracy. Urging his huge beetle
on, he drew his pole-arm, a pole-sword, lowered it and charged
directly at an enemy horseback cavalry; as formidable as the mounted
cavalry was, it was nothing compared to Usagi the giant beetle. Using
his huge horns, Usagi smashed the cavalry; one unfortunate horseman
was impaled on Usagi’s huge upper horn; Usagi threw the poor sod
nearly 500 feet in the air. What Usagi didn’t kill, Kubodera
cleaned up. The Owl Creek, running through the center of the gloomy
Forlorn Valley, was red with blood and bodies. Bloody weapons,
stained with the blood of their enemies and their users lay scattered
all over the battlefield. Usagi and Kubodera ran back in front of his
troops’ lines for the final charge against the dwindling enemy
presence. Upon massing his troops, he drew his naginata, pointed it
at the enemies and let out a massive war cry. Charging across the Owl
Creek, Kubodera’s troops slammed into the remaining enemies, and
within just 5 minutes of brutal slaughter, none remained alive.
“GLORY TO THE SINGING MOUNTAIN CLAN!!!” Kubodera yelled, as all
of his troops shouted in exaltation. That battle was critical to
Kubodera’s cause, with that victory, he had broken the back of the
rival Roaring Storm Clan, and put him one step closer to unifying the
Kingdom of Hime as Shogun. In the glory of his victory, Kubodera
began treating his wound, to prevent infection, as the army marched
triumphantly onto Kio, Kubodera’s base of power. As they turned to
march on, with Kuroda and Usagi carrying the standard, they began
singing a song:
“There once was
a wooden tavern in Hana-town, a place of known and great renown,
where knights came to drink and sit down, our leader burns the whole
place down, cleansing the earth of enemies now, we fight on with the
dreadful sound, of blood being spilled and blades clashing, we give
the foe a good slashing, the souls are reaped, to the underworld they
go, o’er the dark river to Emma-O…Goodbye, goodbye, Sweet Land of
Peace, we’ll be gone for a year at least, if we return to our home
so sweet, the cicadas will sing and the birds shall tweet, and if we
fall in battle, look for us at the top of a tree, blooming like a
cherry blossom for all to see…Goodbye, goodbye, Sweet land of
Peace, we will strike without a wail or peep, and when we die, oh
damn my eyes…we look into Paradise.”
Rain began to
fall gently as the gloomy clouds that gave Forlorn Valley its name
opened up, just as Kubodera’s forces arrived at the gates of Hana,
a peaceful, walled town that had no weapons and was relatively
untouched by the Basilisk Wars, the arrival of Chief Kubodera’s
army in full armor and standard, not to mention Usagi; as the army
marched to the gate, the reaction was one of terror and awe. The town
guards sounded an alarm, and the sound of panicking people emanated
from the town itself. “We mean you no harm; we need to rest here
for a few hours before moving onto Kio.” “We want no part of the
war; take your army somewhere else, Chief!” “Do you want to be
destroyed by other, more hostile armies? You should feel lucky that
my Singing Mountain Army is asking you for passage, and not the
Roaring Storm or Swift Lightning armies, they would pillage and
plunder your town until nothing remained. You would do well to show
us some respect.” The guards simply couldn’t refuse this offer.
They operated the pulleys to open the massive, 25-ton wooden gate,
allowing the Singing Mountain Army, led by Kubodera and Usagi, to
enter. The townspeople were both frightened and astonished at the
same time. Very few had even been beyond the city gates because of
the war, and to see an army in full battle dress, as well as a live
Elephant Hercules Beetle enter the town was a once-in-a-lifetime
experience. “Make way! Stand clear, let us pass!!” some of the
soldiers yelled at overly-curious bystanders. The soldiers continued
to bang their drums and play their fifes, which were audible long
before the army became visible. Usagi grumbled slightly, frightening
some of the children assembled to watch the procession. Kubodera,
however, had some official business to conduct with a certain
individual in Hana. As the soldiers marched up to the Green Wyvern
Inn, several bar patrons staggered out the door to watch Kubodera
dismount Usagi and enter the tavern, flanked by 4 of his soldiers,
katanas and naginatas at the ready. Most of the bar patrons were too
inebriated to really notice the 5 soldiers marching into the bar, but
the bartender recognized them immediately. “SOLDIERS!!” he
yelled, sending the bar into a drunken panic, with men and women
stumbling over one another to get to the door, only to see the rest
of Kubodera’s army outside. “What do you want?! Don’t harm me!
I have a family at home!” “Quiet, you idiot! Don’t fear us. We
only need to find Prince Keitaro Kawabata.” “Why?” “That’s
none of your concern!” Kubodera drew his katana swiftly, pointing
it at the bartender’s throat. “Don’t think I’ll be as
charitable if you don’t help me. I will slit your throat without a
second thought.” “He’s in Heiji, meeting with some of his
allies, the Roaring Storm Army Chief Ishigeru Waka.” “Blast…”
Kubodera grumbled. “Prince Keitaro must be helping Waka rebuild his
forces from the punishment we imposed upon his army. Thank you, kind
sir, that’s all we needed to know. Change of plans. We’re not
headed back to Kio. Move out, troops; we’re headed for Heiji City.”
Kubodera and his army re-mounted their horses and elephant-sized
beetle, and marched towards the rear gate. Kubodera, however, sensed
that extracting information from that bartender was way too easy. How
would he know that the Prince was meeting with Chief Waka without
someone telling him exactly where the Prince Keitaro and Waka were…?
The only reason for that would be that the bartender was some sort of
spy for the Roaring Storm Army; and that Kubodera’s army was
marching directly into a trap…but it was a trap that you knew about
that could be used to your advantage. Knowing this, Kubodera felt
satisfied in the fact that he could simply plan to break around the
trap. That would wait until they arrived in Heiji City, however. As
the town’s rear gates opened, the army marched out of town just as
quickly as it marched in. The sound of the departing banging drums,
flutes and fifes slowly melded with the pattering of the warm, summer
rain. As Kubodera’s army marched onward; he realized that in order
to navigate and launch a sneak attack into Heiji City, his Army would
have to pass through the Lexiia Forest, which was notorious for the
ancient spirits, many quite hostile, that lived there. The spirits,
known as Gaia-Kami, were not taken lightly by Kubodera’s soldiers;
many of them were very superstitious, as the spirits didn’t like
intruders, especially soldiers. The Gaia-Kami hated war, and viewed
humans as a plague on the planet. Fortunately for the human race,
Heiji City was doing something about them. The mayor of Heiji, Oda
Samamaru, was waging his own war against nature, armed with rifles,
cannons, swords, bows and arrows and fire, Oda and his militia
conducted raiding parties into the woods, hunting the marauding
Gaia-Kami and attempting to bring down Titanus, the King of the
Gaia-Kami, who appeared as a huge, black and white furry snake with a
golden halo around its body and a golden face mask, covering its 4
glowing eyes. The Gaia-Kami King routinely sent his subjects to raid
human settlements near the Lexiia Forest.
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