Dragon's Soul: An End's Beginning

by Tony Tran

  But for most of the duration of the trip from the Black Wind Province toward the Green Clover Province Zhang and the three beauties have been using every moment they could to cultivate; because after facing the heart burrowers and giant undead, they felt they were lacking in strength. Had it not been for the Underworld Heart, then, they would have most likely died.

  Chapter 71: False Enemies

  The warm rays of the of sun embraced the soldiers of Aurora as they rode into the Green Clover Province. Adorning their bodies were tempered suits of black armor, beneath them were fine stallions bred for war; by their side were sturdy shields and sharp spears and in their hearts a burning passion for battle.

  Under Zhang’s command, Lu Xun and Gan Ning had broken off from the main army and headed towards the east and west. Their mission was to take control of as many towns and villages as possible while causing the least number of casualties to the common people. This was crucial in case the invasion ended up in failure and Zhang needed an escape route or if enemies appeared from the rear they could stall for time allowing Zhang and the rest of the army to escape.

  Of course that was not the only reason Zhang had sent Lu Xun and Gan Ning on a mission. He wanted to monitor Gan Ning and see if this man was truly trustworthy or not. If Gan Ning reverted back to his old ways then, under the orders from Zhang, Lu Xun would cut him down instantly as to avoid trouble later.

  While Lu Xun and Gan Ning were sent to the east and west. Zhang advanced south and conquered every town and village that was in his path.

  “My lord we have surrounded the village ahead!” A soldier reported to Zhang as the soldier rode up on his horse.

  “Good, now send someone to urge them to surrender. If they surrender, then have them relocate to where Lu Xun and Gan Ning are camped. If they do not surrender, then tie them up and then send them to where Lu Xun and Gan Ning are.” Zhang said with a smile. Having done this to quite a few villages already he had gotten used to it.

  There were some villages who surrendered willingly and some who put up minor resistance but they were all dealt with accordingly. Zhang did not wish to harm innocent people needlessly, so he had ordered his soldiers to use the least amount of force they could when dealing with the common folks. Often times when a village or town surrendered, Zhang even rewarded them with some gold as a show of good faith.

  “Enemy Attack! Enemy Attack!!” A voice rang out from ahead as a soldier riding toward the army yelled.

  “You men, with me! Yuying, Ai, Ling you three stay here I’ll be back soon.” Zhang yelled as he charged forward with some soldiers.

  As Zhang rushed forward on the dirt road, he arrived at a scene of chaos. Soldiers wearing green armor, who were on patrol in the northern border, could be seen running out from inside the surrounded village and engaging in battle with his soldiers.

  “Kill them all!” Zhang roared as he charged toward an unsuspecting enemy soldier and plunged his halberd into the man.

  “Kill those dogs from Aurora!!” A hulking middle aged man wearing green armor while wielding a guandao with a green dragon etched on both of its sides.

  Soldiers from both sides rushed at each other while swinging their weapons wildly. As the battle raged on, without either side showing a clear advantage, a yelled bellowed in the distance.

  “Charge!!!”

  From the woods to the south east of the village, another hulking man wearing green armor could be seen charging towards Zhang while wielding a double sided voulge.

  “Reform formations! Tortoise formation” Zhang commanded while pulling the reigns of his inferno wind walker.

  Moments later, his soldiers retreated and then lined up next to each other with shields raised and spears at their side.

  “If you’re a man fight me, Guan Yu, the god of war!!” The hulking man wielding the guandao roared.

  Hearing this, a smile appeared on Zhang’s face.

  “Hmph! Only an idiot would charge out and fight you. If wars could be won by a single person, then there wouldn’t be a point of an army.” Zhang thought as a he withdrew a red flare from his interspatial ring and shot it into the sky.

  Only a small portion of his army had been sent to secure this village, which is the reason why they did not gain an advantage over the enemy. But once the rest of the army saw the red flare, then reinforcements would arrive and that would be when the tides of battle would change.

  “God of war? Ha someone must think awfully highly of themselves.” Zhang sneered at Guan Yu.

  “You dare to mock the general!? I Wei Yan will cut you to a thousand pieces!” The man holding the dual sided voulge yelled.

  “Hmph! Only if you can get through my army!” Zhang yelled back.

  Soon the armies continued their battle once more. But once the soldiers of Aurora fell into formation, the enemy soldiers were clearly at a disadvantage. One enemy soldier would be facing the might of the entire group of Aurora soldiers when attacking and vice versa the entire group of Aurora soldiers were working together to take out the enemy soldiers one by one.

  But sadly their formation did not hold up for long; because with a sweep of Guan Yu’s guandao, dozens of shields being held up by Zhang’s soldiers were split into two. Once the shields were broken, enemy soldiers would rush in and following behind them would be a rampaging Guan Yu. Wherever this man went Zhang’s soldiers fell to the ground bloodied and dying.

  “Soldiers of the Green Clover Army attack! Show no mercy! Kill the invaders!!” Wei Yan bellowed while attacking Zhang’s soldiers.

  “Hmph these two are good…. Guess I’m the idiot here for doing this.” Zhang thought back to when he said only an idiot would charge at the enemy alone when he had an army as he leaped forward to stop Guan Yu’s rampage.

  Guan Yu could be seen smashing his guandao on one of Zhang’s soldiers, who was barely holding on to his life by using his sword to block the blows.

  Clang! Clang! Clang!

  The guandao went against the sword leaving countless cracks; until after the third strike, the sword finally gave out and shattered to a thousand pieces.

  “Die!” Guan Yu roar as he gazed downward with blood thirsty eyes.

  From behind him, Zhang appeared and jumped to the air while plunging his halberd downward at Guan Yu’s back. But before the halberd could reach him, Guan Yu turned around and smacked it to the side.

  “Unhonorable coward! To attack me from behind!”

  “Hmph the winner is king and the loser is put into the history books as the bad guy. So when I win you will be recorded in the history books as the coward!” Zhang laughed, landing in front of Guan Yu after performing a backflip to create some distance between the two of them.

  But right after when Zhang landed, a blade came slashing towards him. Luckily, Zhang was able to slightly move his head to the side and he was wearing his helmet as he tried to dodge the blade. An ear splitting sound could be heard as the blade collided with Zhang’s helmet and scraped against it.

  “Damn…” Zhang cursed as he fell while his helmet was knocked off and landed close to him on the ground.

  When looking up, he could see Wei Yan going in for the kill. Wei Yan lifted his voulge in the air and used both of his hands to plunge downward, towards Zhang’s abdomen. As the voulge pierced downward, a chained dagger shot out from Zhang’s hand and lodged itself into a tree. Using the tree as an anchor, Zhang pulled on the chain thus allowing him to avoid Wei Yan’s attack.

  “I’ll kill you and offer your head as a sacrifice for Lord Lu Gong!” Guan Yu bellowed as he swung his guandao down at Zhang, who had just avoided Wei Yan’s attack. But just before Guan Yu’s blade was about to sever, Zhang had another chained dagger shot out from his hand and pulled him away.

  Using the two chains in his hands, Zhang was able to avoid certain death. After escaping his one-way trip to meet again his future father-in-law, Zhang jumped up from the ground and landed on his feet.

  “Your petty tricks won’t save
you for long.” Wei Yan yelled as he stood beside Guan Yu.

  “Damn hypocrites! You're going to avenge Lu Gong by killing me? Ha what kind of joke is that!” Zhang mocked as he stored away his halberd into his interspatial ring and withdrew the Slaughterer blade and a Lightning Eater Scale shield.

  With his shield and sword in hand Zhang jumped into the air where his ten Dragon Talon throwing knives appeared and shot downward. The knives cut through the air so fast that a bloodcurdling screech could be heard.

  Boom! Boom! Boom!

  One small crater after another was formed when the knives impacted the ground, causing a curtain of dust surrounded the area around them. As the dust picked up, Guan Yu and Wei Yan lost all vision on Zhang as he faded in behind the curtain of dust.

  While using the dust to hide himself, Zhang landed on the ground and performed a roll then lunged for Wei Yan with his sword.

  Clang! The sound of metal hitting metal could be heard as Zhang’s sword collided with Wei Yan’s double sided voulge.

  “Ha you think a bit of dust can hide you from me?” Wei Yan snickered as he began an onslaught of attacks on Zhang. As if the voulge was a part of himself, Wei Yan wielded it extremely agilely.

  Without allowing Zhang even a moment's breathe, the sound of a blade slashing through the air could be heard coming from behind him. Behind the curtain of dust, Guan Yu appeared and swept his guandao at Zhang’s back mercilessly.

  But with a spinning motion Zhang was able to avoid both Wei Yan and Guan Yu’s attacks. After Zhang was gone Wei Yan voulge collided with Guan Yu’s guandao, causing sparks to fly about. Using this opportunity, Zhang dashed toward where his mount was.

  “Retreat!!” Zhang yelled to his men. He knew that he was no match for Guan Yu and Wei Yan when they were both fighting him at the same time; and the longer he continued fighting them, the bigger the advantage they would have on him.

  “Aurora swine you think we will just let you run after you assassinated our lord!?” Guan Yu bellowed as he began pursuing Zhang on foot. Hundreds if not, thousands of soldiers followed behind Guan Yu as he rushed forward slewing Zhang’s men.

  “Kill your lord?” Zhang murmured with a confused tone.

  While Zhang retreated with his soldiers, Guan Yu and Wei Yan continued pursuing them. Until, suddenly, the rumbling of thousands of hooves pounding against the dirt road could be heard.

  Soon hundreds of black flags blew against the wind as thousands of mounted soldiers donned in black armor, with weapons drawn, came into view. At the front of these thousands of men, were three women dressed in black scale armor dresses atop of fiery steeds just like Zhang’s.

  “Charge!!!” Yuying could be seen yelling to the soldiers behind her.

  “Now the pursuers will be the pursued.” Zhang murmur as an evil grin appeared on his face while he pulled the reigns on his fiery steed.

  “Reinforcements have arrived! Reform formations behind the cavalry! All the cavalry surround the enemy!!” Zhang commanded as pulled the reins of his mount to turn back facing the enemy.

  While Zhang’s soldiers were now filled with morale thanks to their reinforcements. Guan Yu’s soldiers felt their spines shivered as they faced a wall of horses and spears. If they fell on the ground, they would be trampled by thousands of horses; if they ran, they would be impaled by spears. That’s to say, if they could outrun Zhang’s cavalry army to begin with.

  Moments later, Guan Yu’s army was surrounded by the thousands of galloping horses.

  “Lay down your arms and surrender or die!” Zhang bellowed.

  A few of green armored soldiers, after hearing Zhang’s words, began wavering and looked down at the weapons in their hands.

  “What are you men doing!? Don’t you remember? We swore we would avenge our lord by killing the Aurora scum who assassinated him! If we surrender now what will happen to our families? What will happen to our brothers in arms!? Why do you think they are here!? They want our riches, our land, and our women! Once you surrender, will you turn your swords against the Green Clover Province?” Guan Yu yelled furiously.

  “For Lord Lu Gong! Vengeance or death!” Guan Yu’s soldiers roared as they raised their swords into the air.

  Hearing Guan Yu’s yells Zhang was awfully confused. From the reports they received it was the soldiers of the Heavenly Sword Province who killed the Lord of Green Clover City. But he couldn’t deny everything Guan Yu had said, because he definitely wanted the riches and land of the Green Clover Province.

  “What are you fools talking about!? We were not the ones who killed Lord Lu Gong it was the soldiers of the Heavenly Sword Province who did! In fact, we are here to avenge him ourselves. We did not come for your riches, land or women!” Zhang refuted. Although he wanted two of the three things there was no way he would admit this at a time like this.

  “Lies! We received word from Lord Lu Gong’s wife herself!” Guan Yu howled as he pulled out a letter from beneath his armor.

  “Hmph! A mere letter? You’re telling me you did not witness lord Lu Gong’s death personally? You have not seen the flags of the Heavenly Sword Province being hung above the walls of Green Clover city!?” Zhang snickered with disdain in his eyes.

  “No I did not personally witness my Lord Lu Gong’s death. Our Green Dragon Legion had always been positioned at the borders of the Green Clover Province.” Guan Yu replied.

  “Men retreat! We’ll leave these fools here to realize their idiocrasy.” Zhang said as he pulled the reigns of his steed and galloped toward where Yuying, Ai and Ling were.

  “You heard the general! Fall back!” One of Zhang’s lieutenants ordered. If Zhang Liao was here he would recognize this lieutenant as his friend Leng Zai.

  As the soldiers of Aurora fell back, Guan Yu and his men were left in a daze. They could not believe what was happening, moments ago they were ready to fight to death; but now the enemy was falling back and there was a chance that the enemy they had been fighting was not even an enemy to begin with. If Zhang’s words were true, then they were being used.

  “Fall back to the camp!” Guan Yu commanded to his dazed soldiers.

  While moving back to their camp, Yuying and Zhang could be seen talking amongst themselves.

  “Brother was it wise to let them go just like that?” Yuying asked with a perplexed look on her face.

  “More harm will be done to the enemy if we let them return alive.” Said Zhang

  Chapter 72: Obstacles

  After the run-in with Guan Yu and Wei Yan, Zhang’s army did not encounter any other form of resistance. Whenever they came upon a village or town, it would be void of life and showed signs of people leaving in a hurry. Thanks to this, Zhang’s army was able to advance at an astonishing pace through the Green Clover Province. What would have taken weeks to transverse, while facing resistance, only took them a few days.

  But of course, things could never go so smoothly, it did not take long for Zhang and his army to encounter another obstacle in his path. This time, the obstacle blocking Zhang came in the form of tall walls and sturdy gates.

  “My lord according to the map, this city, which is called New Leaf City, is the last obstacle that stands between us and the rendezvous point.” Leng Zai reported to Zhang.

  “Send a messenger and ask them to surrender.” Zhang commanded. Once they took control of New Leaf City, then the march toward the rendezvous point and Green Clover City would only take a few days. But if Zhang ignored New Leaf City and marched passed it, there was a chance they he could be attacked by enemy soldiers from behind when he engaged in battle with the soldiers in Green Clover City.

  As Zhang’s messenger rode towards New Leaf City, hundreds of banners depicting a snake coiled around a sword suddenly appeared on top of the city walls. Then a barrage of hundreds of arrows pierced through the sky. Moments later, Zhang’s messenger was shot full of arrows as his horse plunged to the ground.

  “Damn! It’s the Heavenly Sword Army!” Zhang cursed to himse
lf as he watched the scene unfold.

  “Leng Zai, take the rest of the army; cut down the forest and take these.” Zhang said as he withdrew a few pieces of paper from his interspatial ring. "Construct siege weapons. I want our flags planted on the top of the city walls by nightfall.” The blueprints he had drawn were a few simple designs for mobile siege rams and mobile siege towers. It was not like these things hadn’t been invented yet, but Zhang’s versions were much more refined compared to the crude designs everyone else had been using. He had drawn these up using knowledge from his past life.

  “Right away my lord!” Leng Zai replied as he took the blueprints from Zhang’s and hurriedly ordered his subordinates to begin construction of the siege weapons. Soon, the sound of thousands of blades hacking against the thick trunks of hundreds of trees became audible.