Dragon's Soul: An End's Beginning

by Tony Tran

  Once they turned back Shu Shang would move and take other towers they had just taken.

  Above the arena countless eyes were glued to the screens showing the scenes happening below

  "That prince Shu Shang sure lives up to his reputation." King Huang He said as he watched the scene of events from a balcony above the arena.

  "They don't call him the young phoenix for nothing. If given a chance the Phoenix will come back from the tiniest of sparks. Likewise, if given the tiniest chance Shu Shang can turn a disadvantageous situation in his favor." The minister of war Wu Tong said.

  "Had he not been born second in line to the throne then the kingdom of Shu would most likely grow very powerful and maybe become an empire." Huang He said.

  “But you have to admit minister Wu’s daughter and the other young girl who is married to young master Zhang is very skilled also.” Another minister said.

  “Indeed.” King Huang He said while watching the large screen in the sky.

  Down below Zhang was currently surround the red tower owned by Ming Jiang. But it proved difficult to take over the red tower then the other ones up until now.

  Ming Jiang although possessing only a few soldiers was able to repel Zhang's soldiers. He had retreat into the tower and had his men barricade the gates of the tower.

  But it was only a matter of time before the gates would fall and the tower with it.

  "You can't hide in there forever you bastard!!" Zhang yelled up at the tower.

  “Hmph you cheating son of a bitch I’ll get you for this!!” A voice from above could be heard yelling down.

  “If you got the guts come down here and fight!!” Zhang yelled back up.

  “Ha if you have the skills come up here!”

  “So be it!”

  “Break down the tower walls!!!” Zhang yelled as his men.

  “Yes my lord!!” Zhang’s men yelled as they took their spears and jabbed into the brickwork of the tower. Although the weapons they got from the kingdom could not injure other people physically like real weapons they were still fairly decent weapons. The spears Zhang’s soldiers had were like regular spears but without edges.

  Groups of Zhang’s soldiers began taking turns chipping at the tower wall. Piece by piece small parts of the walls were chipped off by the soldiers. Ming Jiang watched from above in horror. He knew that once that wall goes down he will lose but not only that Zhang would most likely do some horrible things to him.

  “Once they get in move back to the staircase and deploy shields!! We must prevent them from coming up or else we will lose!” Ming Jiang yelled to his men.

  As Zhang was busy trying to break into Ming Jiang’s tower something surprised him. The ray of light from the tower he had taken moments ago before coming to attack Ming Jiang changed colors from blue to green.

  “What the…” Zhang murmured.

  “Break down the walls quickly! Something is happening in the rear.” Zhang yelled out to his soldiers.

  From above the tower Ming Jiang saw this happen too. A hint of hope appeared on his face.

  “I don’t know what is happening but if that green team keeps taking his towers then that bastard will have to go and defend.” Ming Jiang laughed.

  As Zhang was preoccupied with Ming Jiang the audience above was preoccupied watching the scenes unfolding elsewhere. On another screen Ling was moving up the back line of their army with her troops. While she did that one of their towers was captured.

  “Something is happening everyone quickly let’s move!” She commanded.

  However, before she could make it to that tower another tower across on the other side of the arena changed colors from blue to green. Currently the green team held onto five towers while the blue team has three and the red and black team each have one.

  “Split up, half of you with me and the other half continue moving forward and reinforce our forces.” Ling said.

  The green team had successfully added more chaos to the already chaotic arena by consecutively taking towers from the blue team. And with roughly one hour left meant that there was not a high possibility of anyone obtaining all ten towers.

  “To avoid the enemy sneak through our line and taking our towers we will now change the direction we are going in.” Ling said. If heading forward meant the enemy had a chance of sneaking pass her then Ling would move from left to right from bottom and up.

  This would allow for her to sweep through the forest in a crisscrossed way creating almost a net as her other soldiers continued moving forward.

  While Ling did this back at the tower where Zhang and Ming Jiang was some turn of events are taking place. Zhang’s soldiers had successfully knocked loose a few bricks in the wall of the side of the tower. But Ming Jiang’s soldiers would stick their spears out from the hole preventing Zhang from enlarging it.

  Then suddenly from the woods yelling could be hard.

  “CHARGE!!!!”

  Once the voice rang through the air hundreds of green armored soldiers rushed out from the woods and began attacking Zhang’s men from behind. As they were caught off guard Zhang’s men suffered heavy losses.

  “Fuck…. Retreat fall back and meet up with the rest of our forces.” Zhang yelled. If he stayed any long the soldiers from inside the tower might charge out and then he would have a fight to deal with on two sides.

  One by one Zhang’s soldiers began retreating and soon only green armored soldiers were left standing below the red tower.

  “Ming Jiang lets join forces. Alone we will be wiped out by their numbers.”

  “Me work with you? Do you take me for a fool? Fuck you Shu Shang I know quite well that the minute I open these gate then you’ll attack.” Ming Jiang replied. He knew that Shu Shang would definitely not cooperate with him due to their pass enmity with each other.

  “So be it. Men let’s move!” Shu Shang ordered and began leaving.

  “You’re lucky you still have some use if I left you in the tournament you fool.” Shu Shang murmured as he left. Ming Jiang could still be used to stall Zhang’s team so Shu Shang left him alone instead of attacking the tower. And ironically he had Ming Jiang agreed to it he would have cooperated with him for a while at least.

  As Shu Shang looked up into the sky he could see that one of the two towers he had taken from the blue team was reclaimed.

  “Whoever is on the other side of the arena sure works quick.” He praised.

  On the other side of the arena was Yuying with her soldiers. She had given up on taking the black team’s tower and turned back to secure her rear line as any commander would do in a real battle. To compromise one’s rear line to advance was giving the enemy a chance to surround you. Thus Yuying did not advance and turned back.

  “We will be splitting the army into two. One group will stay here and secure the location and the other will follow me in echelon formation and sweep down to the other side of the arena. The other team must be down there somewhere.” Yuying said to her soldiers.

  Using the echelon formation would be better for sweeping through the forest since it would allow for less openings for enemies to pass through.

  “Let’s move! Quickly!” Yuying yelled.

  However, before her forces could begin moving a voice rang out in the distance.

  “Sis!”

  In the distance coming out from behind a bush was Ai and Ling along with their soldiers.

  “Why are you guys here?” Yuying asked.

  “We came up to sweep for enemies but we did not run into any.” Ling said.

  “Then they most likely moved to the other end of the arena back to their towers.” Yuying said.

  “That’s what I was thinking. But to think someone bypassed us. We had a large crescent moon sweeping toward the other end of the arena but that person managed to squeeze through the gaps.” Ling said.

  “Yea we should go meet up with brother but before that we must reinforce the towers we already have taken or else they will be taken away.” Yuying
said to Ling.

  “How many men do you have? We have around one thousand here and I sent one thousand forward to meet up with brother.” Ling said.

  “I have about one thousand myself. But before we can meet up with brother we have to take the black tower.” Yuying said as she pointed to a tower emitting black light not too far from where they were. Had Ling and Ai not come upward she would have moved without bothering to take the black tower but now since they knew the enemy was no longer threatening their rear towers it was time to advance once more.

  As they moved their soldiers a voice could be heard throughout the arena.

  “There is thirty minutes left before the final stage of the tournament concludes.”

  “We have to take this tower quickly time is almost up. Brother can handle himself with the soldiers you sent to him.” Yuying said to Ling.

  “Everyone let’s move no need for formations now with our numbers we can take whoever we meet head on!” Yuying yelled as she led everyone toward the black tower.

  As Yuying, Ling and Ai went for the black tower, Zhang was now back in front of the red tower.

  “Ming Jiang! I’m back and this time I really will beat the crap out of you. Even if Shu Shang comes he won’t be able to help you.” Zhang yelled up at the tower.

  He currently had about one thousand and two hundred soldiers after the soldiers Ling sent joined up with him which meant that his current forces were numerically at an advantage. Before he has sent most of the soldiers that were undercover to where Ling was to secure the rear.

  Thus Zhang’s soldiers began chipping away at the wall once more. But not only did they do this they began attacking the hinges of the iron gate.

  Up at the top of the tower Ming Jiang was cursing at himself.

  “If I had only brought more soldiers along with me on the trip then this wouldn’t have fucken happened!” He yelled as he stomped his feet at the ground. Ming Jiang was the one that had hired the most soldiers from Zhang unknowingly. Had it not been for the few extremely skilled soldiers that came with him from the Ming kingdom then he would have been knocked out of the tournament a long time ago.

  But after defeating the soldiers that was planted into his team he did not have enough of his own soldiers to go out and take any towers. So all Ming Jiang could do was hole up in the tower waiting for the time limit.

  “You fucker the time limit is almost up you think you can get to me before then?” Ming Jiang yelled down at Zhang.

  However just when he finished his sentence a loud bang could be heard. When looking down he could see Zhang’s soldiers rushing into the tower.

  “The gate is down!! ATTACK!!!!!!!” A soldier yelled out as he rushed into the tower.

  A few of Ming Jiang’s soldiers who were behind the gate were trapped under it after the gate fell into the tower.

  “Pull them out and break their glass plates.” Zhang order his men. Had he left those men there they would have died from being trampled over by his men as they stepped on the iron gate to get inside.

  Although Zhang’s forces were able to push into the tower they were stopped by Ming Jiang’s soldiers at the staircase leading up to the top of the tower by forming a wall of shields.

  “Form tortoise shell formation!” Zhang yelled.

  “At once my lord!” The soldiers yelled in unison.

  The soldiers lined up and overlapped their shields until they were able to imitate the shape of a tortoise’s shell with Zhang in the middle of it. Then they began moving closer and closer to the wall of shields made up by Ming Jiang’s soldiers until their shields touched.

  “OPEN!!” Zhang yelled while inside the formation.

  His soldiers that were not at the very front collapsed the formation as pairs of soldiers held up shields forming a mini staircase. Zhang and a few other soldiers stepped on these shields and jumped behind Ming Jiang’s soldiers and began dispatching them.

  Once all of Ming Jiang’s soldiers were taken care of Zhang moved up the stairs.

  “I have you now.” Zhang said while looking at Ming Jiang who was at the top of the tower alone.

  “What are you going to do to me?” Ming Jiang asked in a scared voice.

  “I’m going to teach you how to fly.” Zhang said.

  Chapter 48: Winners

  The audience watching the tournament from the stands all broke out into laughter as they watched the scenes happening on the large screen floating in the air. Zhang had tied Ming Jiang up and dangled him off the side of the tower upside down. It was pretty silly how Ming Jiang looked because only his foot was tied by the rope so he was hanging by a limb.

  Shortly after doing this to Ming Jiang, Zhang's forces claimed the red tower and changed the ray of light it shot out to a blue color.

  "Got to admit Shu Shang is pretty good to be able to take advantage of my plan like this." Zhang thought to himself. Had it not been for Shu Shang then Zhang’s team would have dominated the final stage of the tournament. However, Zhang did not dislike Shu Shang because of this. Rather he found it enjoyable.

  “Perhaps I should give you a gift as a show of good faith.” Zhang mumbled.

  "We will split into two groups. One group will stay here and defend this location, one will follow me and advance forward." Zhang said. He had gone for the red tower to secure a front line inside of moving back. Because he knew that after claiming the red tower he could leisurely move back and take the lost tower back.

  There was roughly only twenty minutes left until the end of the tournament and if nothing unexpected happened the blue team should end up with at least six towers.

  Moments later the black ray of light that shot into the sky changed to a clear blue color. Yuying, Ling, and Ai had successfully taken over the black tower.

  Zhang with his advance party moved forward to take another one of Shu Shang’s towers. However, when they reached the tower Shu Shang had holed up inside of the tower. With so little time left Zhang could not take the tower so he opted to move toward the next one. Yuying had also tried to take another one of Shu Shang’s towers however it too had soldiers holed up inside so she too moved on to another tower.

  Up in the stands the audience was counting down the last few minutes of the tournament. The events that happened in the final stage had been beyond everyone’s imagination. Had they not been watching from the stands they might have thought they were actually on a battlefield.

  “That blue team has six towers and the green team has four. I wonder why the blue team did not go back for that one tower that was stolen by the green team earlier.” A woman watching from the stands said to a man beside her.

  “Who knows maybe they are giving the green team a tower as a show of good faith.” The man replied to the woman.

  Soon after a loud bell sound could be heard transmitting through the colosseum then a loud voice could be heard.

  “The time limit has been reached and the tournament now concludes with the blue team with six towers and the green team with four.”

  Once the end of the tournament was announced the audience broke out cheering. It had truly been a spectacle for those watching. It had showed how crafty and resourceful some of the future leaders of the forces in the alliance were. Since the tournament ended the screens floating in the sky no longer showed the scenes from the arena but the image of king Huang He was now visible.

  “Thank you everyone for coming today to bear witness to the end of the tournament. I am pleased to announce that winners of tournament are Prince Shu Shang of the Shu Kingdom and Zhou Zhang the successor to the Aurora province.” King Huang He said.

  “In a short while there will be a reward ceremony in front of the colosseum for the two winners of the tournament.” King Huang He added.

  After hearing this people began filing out of the stands and to the front of the arena where a large stage had been set up.

  Down below in the arena soldiers from various teams could be seen walking toward any one of the ten gates l
eading out of the arena. Those who were injured would be looked at by doctors while everyone else was to return the armor and weapons they were lent and head out to the front of the colosseum.

  Zhang was heading back to the gate that he had entered the arena from because he and the three beauties had agreed to meet up there. After some walking the gate was in sight however he did not see a sign of Yuying, Ai or Ling.

  “Odd we agreed to meet over here.” Zhang thought as he walked through the forest heading toward the gate.

  “SURPRISE!!!” Three loud voices rang out from both Zhang’s right and left. From out of nowhere Yuying, Ai and Ling sprang at Zhang tackling him to the ground.