Xiangyang Castle (5)
Clashing with Guan Yu, Gan Ning tried to slip past her strikes by only feigning a contest of weapons. Her aim was the opening that every attack inevitably left behind.
Strength won't be enough against her. I'll have to settle this with skill.
Having settled how to fight, Gan Ning moved fast. She rolled straight into a sideways evasion of Guan Yu's swing, and with her target gone, the Green Dragon Crescent Blade came plunging down toward empty ground.
Yes! Strike now, while she's open—?!
With Guan Yu's flank laid completely bare, Gan Ning let out a cry of triumph and lunged.
But then—
Whoosh—!
"What the hell—!"
Gan Ning, who had been going for that opening, flung herself backward with a cry that was all but a scream. The very strike she had evaded — the one that should have buried itself in the dirt — had bent at a right angle at the last possible instant!
Had she committed to her attack without seeing that, the outcome would not have been pretty.
Even with her blow evaded, Guan Yu showed no trace of disappointment.
"Your reactions are sharp."
Nothing more — just a flat murmur, as though passing judgment.
"...Tch!"
Having marked that reaction, Gan Ning pressed on with her assault.
"Let's see how you deal with this one!"
Just as she had against Zhang Liao before dawn the previous day, Gan Ning hurled daggers as she opened up the distance. Running was the one thing she was confident in — put a little room between them, she figured, and she could still get away.
The daggers flew, each aimed with precision at a vital point on the human body. Against anyone above a certain caliber they were useless outside a surprise attack, but they did make an enemy freeze for a heartbeat — and in that heartbeat, whether she pressed the attack or broke away and ran was entirely Gan Ning's choice.
But Guan Yu's answer blew past anything she had imagined.
"Tricks will not avail you."
"Gah!"
No sooner had the daggers left her hand than Guan Yu sprang from where she stood, whirled her airborne body through a full revolution, and brought the Green Dragon Crescent Blade around in a ferocious arc. One glance said it couldn't be parried — and Gan Ning, the instant her feet touched earth, rolled gracelessly across the dirt yet again to escape it.
CRASH—!
As if to prove her choice sound, a boulder snagged by mischance on Guan Yu's blade shattered on the spot, spraying fragments in every direction.
Gazing at the sight, Gan Ning muttered.
"Now this is... a little unfair, isn't it."
Spring from a standstill, dodge the projectile, and close the distance all in the same breath? Easily said — anyone short of a master of staggering caliber wouldn't even dream of attempting it. A thrown blade crosses the gap in a blink; where would one find the time to leap?
Yet the general before her had moved faster than any thrown blade, as though mocking the very attempt.
And here I figured her body might run a touch slow. Not even close. That crazy bitch was simply an unreasonable creature — monstrous strength and blinding speed in one package, with no rhyme or reason to it. A general who deserved the name Match for Ten Thousand, and then some.
Gan Ning knew exactly how far her own skills would carry her in this world, and from that she could gauge with ease just how strong Guan Yu was.
"Absolutely staggering..."
She could feel her hold on the fight slipping loose. She was the sort who could laugh — haha — and breeze past nearly anything, but this time that was impossible. It wasn't even a question of whether her head stayed on her shoulders; she had long accepted that a life spent under arms would end one day sprawled on some battlefield. She was simply astonished that a general like this existed at all. In Yi Province and Jing Province alike, no one could have stood against her...
"The world really is a wide place."
Gan Ning gave a dry chuckle and looked at Guan Yu, who stood silent in place.
...
Composed as she looked now, Gan Ning knew the moment she showed the slightest sign of backing off, that distance would close in a flash.
"Just asking on the off chance... You don't mean to let me go, do you?"
"A strange question."
Guan Yu came on slowly, the point of the Green Dragon Crescent Blade angled down toward the earth, and every measured footfall drove Gan Ning's heart harder.
"To seize you and drag you before the one I serve — is that not the natural course of action?"
...
"Stay still and behave. Resist too fiercely, and I will have no choice but to cut you down."
Arrogant words, perhaps — but from a woman with that kind of terrifying skill, maybe she had earned them. A general she had no hope of matching stood before her, and the noose was tightening on all sides. Drag things out until the ring sealed shut, and even the small hope of slipping away would vanish.
"...Boss."
Just then a familiar voice rose from nearby. Gan Ning spoke without pulling her eyes from Guan Yu.
"What, you lot? Still haven't run for it?"
"How could we ever leave you behind and run, Boss?"
Gan Ning's voice was flat with disbelief.
"Spare me the bullshit."
"...Ain't that a bit harsh?"
"This from the men with an uncanny gift for finding their own way out alive. Never mind — just give me the real reason."
Gan Ning's subordinate answered with a sigh.
"...You see that woman over there?"
"Hm?"
Gan Ning turned her head toward where the man was pointing.
"Holy hell."
The astonishment poured out of her before she could stop it. A general stood there with Gan Ning's underlings piled high around her, yawning as she plugged an entire passageway single-handedly. Stranger still, plenty of her men lay broken and out of action — but hardly any were dead.
"The one fighting you is a monster, Boss — but that one over there is every bit the monster too."
"Is that so."
"Every sweep of that spear cuts down five or six men at a stroke. Just watching her is enough to turn your blood cold..."
The subordinate shuddered, trembling as though a chill had seized him.
"...Hm?"
The general with the absurdly long weapon slung across her shoulder felt the gaze and looked Gan Ning full in the face.
"What're you staring at me for?"
The woman with black hair bound to one side fixed her crimson eyes on Gan Ning — a color like fresh-spilled blood, vivid enough to blaze even at midnight. The general blocking the road cocked her head slightly.
"Got attention to spare for wandering eyes, with Sister Yunchang right in front of you?"
"Oh. Right."
Cornered as she already was, she had let her gaze drift without even noticing. Gan Ning turned her eyes back to Guan Yu and opened her mouth.
"So... sorry about that?"
"It is of no consequence."
Guan Yu replied in an even voice.
"Stalling for time was your aim regardless."
"Whoa! The old you would've blown up first, yelling 'You dare disrespect me?!'"
Zhang Fei gaped at Guan Yu's reaction, utterly floored.
She declared, "I'm telling Sister Xuande every last bit of this!"
"...Yide."
At the faint drop in Guan Yu's voice, Zhang Fei flinched hard — then hollered all the louder.
"What, why?! It's a compliment!"
"...Enough."
Guan Yu's face said she had a great deal more to say, but she sighed and spared the words.
"This idle talk has run long. Will you keep at it, then?"
"Mmm..."
Gan Ning turned her head and swept her gaze over her surroundings.
"Uuugh..."
"Ooogh..."
Her own men lay sprawled face-down across the ground like corpses, every last one of them out of the fight.
...
Ahead of her, a general worthy of the name Match for Ten Thousand held her ground —
"Well, then."
— and behind her, hunch though it was, another general every bit her equal stood planted firm in the pass. Ill-mannered as she looked, granted.
To make matters worse, the encirclement was nearly complete. Even Zhang Liao, the general she had crossed the day before, watched her from the saddle.
Even if heaven's luck let her slip away from here, that woman would come riding after her with cavalry in no time.
"No way out of this one, huh."
Having tallied it all up, Gan Ning smirked.
"All because of that bastard Huang Zu. Look at the state of me."
"Boss?"
"Enough. I'm surrendering. That's that."
Gan Ning dropped the halberds from both her hands to the ground. The pair clattered and clanged as they rolled across the dirt.
"Tell the General-in-Chief: roast me or boil me, however he pleases."
...
The moment Gan Ning gave up the fight, the river pirates who followed her laid down their weapons just as obediently. Gan Ning, and the several hundred river pirates under her banner — they were taken without offering any real resistance at all.
Word that Gan Ning had failed in her night raid and been taken by the enemy reached Huang Zu as well, where he held Fancheng.
"Hm... So she was captured after all."
...
Su Fei, Huang Zu's deputy, heard the news at his side and could not master his despair.
What kind of loyalty was this, that she'd repay the man who took her in by walking into capture on her own two feet?
Now the only path left for Gan Ning to survive was to throw herself on the General-in-Chief's mercy.
Huang Zu paid no heed to whatever Su Fei might be thinking and pressed on.
"Now that we know guerrilla tactics are spent, there is nothing for it but to bar the gates tight and hold out."
...
"Relay this to every officer under my command: reinforce the defenses further, and any person showing suspicious behavior is to be seized at once."
"As you command."
Su Fei bowed low and took up his lord's order.
A few days later—
"...Xiangyang Castle has fallen?"
"Yes, sir! Liu Biao's madness finally showed itself in full — he flew into a complete frenzy and was put down by one of his own generals!"
"Ha... well, this is a fine thing. What am I to do now."
At the messenger's report, Huang Zu clutched his forehead.
The messenger ventured, watching his reaction carefully.
"The General-in-Chief says that if you surrender even now, the past will not be held against you..."
"Then what are you standing around for?! Open the gates this instant and welcome our lord's army!"
"Y-yes, sir!"
Having read the situation, Huang Zu changed sides with breathtaking speed.
And so Fancheng, the final bulwark guarding Xiangyang Castle, passed into the General-in-Chief's grasp.