Hulao Pass (2)
"Long live General Lü!"
"Long live the Peerless Under Heaven!"
Lü Bu, who had swaggered out, boldly demanded single combat, and returned alone after beating three enemy commanders to death, was being showered with a hero's welcome by the soldiers.
Even I, who had watched her exploits time and again, felt my chest swell at the sight—so what must it have done to the fresh recruits, witnessing the martial glory of the Peerless Under Heaven for the very first time today? The green troops, scarcely weeks into their service, reclaimed their courage and raised a thunderous cheer.
Seeing the fear of battle drain from the recruits' eyes, I walked slowly toward Lü Bu as she dismounted. The moment she saw me, she flashed a proud, unashamed smile.
"So? I did great, didn't I?"
"You did."
Smiling, I reached out and ruffled her hair. Cheeks flushed pink, Lü Bu went on grinning as she leaned into my touch.
The first day had been tossed aside this absurdly easily, so unless our enemies were complete fools, they would be preparing countermeasures by now. Come tomorrow, the scene I had in mind would almost certainly unfold. Which meant I needed to lay some plans of my own as well.
"Lü Bu."
"Hm?" Her cocky grin softened as she turned to answer.
"Tomorrow will probably be a little rough."
At my wry smile, she gave a dismissive snort. "Hmph! I hope they at least let me get properly warmed up!"
Somehow I doubted it would stop at a warm-up. Still, I had to admit—seeing her in such blazing spirits was a fine sight indeed.
A day of humiliation passed for the coalition, and the next morning arrived. And once again Lü Bu, the Peerless Under Heaven, came calling to taunt them.
"Hey, you gutless bastards! Let's go another round today—!" The Peerless Under Heaven held her ground in full view, defiant as ever.
"Why don't we simply indulge her?!" one of the coalition's lords burst out, rounding on Yuan Shu. "Rather than keep losing precious commanders to that filly of a bitch, wouldn't indulging her be far the better bargain?!"
"Silence!"
"...!"
At Yuan Shu's bellow, Liu Dai—the Inspector of Yanzhou who had voiced the suggestion—swallowed hard and began anxiously reading his mood. Red-faced, Yuan Shu roared on.
"And what do you suppose becomes of us if we ignore the provocations of that damned bitch?!"
"Th-that would be..."
"Then word will spread across the entire realm that we are incompetent fools who cannot even handle a single commander!"
For Yuan Shu, who prized his prestige above all else in any situation, the prospect of lowborn rabble snickering at his failings was beyond all toleration. "How can a host of useful men fail to hold a single one worth his salt?! At this rate, how are we to take Hulao Pass—and how are we to seize Luoyang?!"
Several lords shot Yuan Shu resentful glances—a man who, exactly like the rest of them, had accomplished precisely nothing, yet did nothing but heap insults on everyone else. Scarcely any time had passed since they had resolved to punish Jeong Reung and gathered under one banner, and already the alliance was cracking apart.
They're finished. Cao Cao, who had seen it coming from the very moment Yuan Shu took command of the coalition, clicked her tongue inwardly and looked away. This alliance was doomed to be short-lived anyway; her plan was simply to take stock of whether anyone here was worth remembering.
Hm. I see hardly anyone here who could open my eyes. The closest thing was Sun Jian, Administrator of Changsha—a man with genuine mettle, though his temperament was the problem. One look was enough to tell he was the sort who could never master his own temper, and would die before his time because of it.
Hm? Then someone caught Cao Cao's eye.
Behind Gongsun Zan stood a beauty with striking black hair and black eyes—coloring said to belong to the imperial bloodline alone. Hers was the gaze of someone whose conviction could only come from a clear-cut purpose. It felt almost like looking at that man sitting in Luoyang at this very moment, and Cao Cao made no effort to hide her intrigue.
"..."
"...?"
The one who had drawn that interest, however, found Cao Cao's stare more than a little uncomfortable. Who is that girl, and why is she staring at me like that?
Just then, Wang Kuang, standing at Yuan Shu's side, spoke up. "What if we were to send out several commanders at once?"
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Yuan Shu's face twisted with displeasure, but he turned to Wang Kuang as if inviting him to explain.
"Sending our commanders out one at a time against that Peerless Under Heaven is nothing but a pointless waste of lives."
"And yet having a crowd of men surround a single one is a disgraceful display." What in the world is this man saying?
At Yuan Shu's absurd remark, Wang Kuang's composure nearly crumbled on the spot. He had heard the man couldn't keep his wits about him even with death staring him in the face, but he hadn't imagined it was this bad. So this was what came of letting the name of the Four Generations of Three Excellencies dazzle them into raising that fool to lead the coalition. If it was going to be like this, the ice queen Yuan Shao would have been the better choice after all....
But regretting it now would change nothing, so Wang Kuang pressed on, doing his utmost to talk Yuan Shu around. "...Even so, is it not better than word spreading that we ignored her taunts out of fear of a single commander?"
"...Tch! Do as you please!" Radiating displeasure from every pore, Yuan Shu granted the request.
Leaving behind Yuan Shu—who had grated on every nerve right up to the very end—the coalition moved to act. And at that moment, the unexpected struck.
Kraaaagh—!
Uraaagh—!
"Wh-what is that sound?"
The thunder of hooves shaking the earth to its core. The agonized screams of soldiers crying out in pain. Lü Bu, worn out with waiting, had finally led her cavalry to fall upon the coalition first.
Lü Bu had been holding her position, waiting for the coalition to come to her, and the long wait had bored her stiff. "A handful of them die and the whole lot loses its nerve." They said every fearsome fighter under heaven had gathered here, so she had expected more....
Maybe I should just sweep through them and be done with it. One look at the coalition's current state, and she could see it plainly: one cavalry charge into their midst, and they would crumble and scatter to the four winds.
"Enough. Enough of this." Exhaling a sigh, Lü Bu let the Sky Piercer Halberd slip down from her shoulder until its end rested against the earth.
"If they won't come, then I'll just have to go to them."
First, I'd better get his permission.
"..."
Far off atop Hulao Pass, Jeong Reung—who had been watching her the whole time—gave a small nod. It meant that he would answer her from behind, and she was to do as she pleased.
Turning her head toward Jeong Reung, Lü Bu broke into a mischievous grin. "Come on, boys—let's go! We're trampling every last one of them—!!"
WAAAAAAAGH—!!
The instant Lü Bu shot forward, the soldiers roared as though those words were the very thing they had been waiting for.
"Bl-block them! Hold them back—!" The coalition vanguard, who until that moment had done nothing but anxiously watch Lü Bu's mood, hastily leveled their spears.
Guiding Red Hare forward, Lü Bu swept her gaze over the line arrayed to stop her cavalry. The coalition soldiers, already trembling head to toe with fear, looked as though simply gripping their spears was a struggle. As for the anti-cavalry stakes, thrown up in what was clearly a rush—their shoddiness was plain at a glance, promising nothing resembling meaningful resistance.
Having read the situation in a matter of moments, Lü Bu sneered at the coalition. "You think that will stop me?"
Red Hare plunged straight into the flimsy stakes barring the way and smashed clean through them, and Lü Bu bored into the heart of the coalition's square.
"URAAAGH—!!"
The elite cavalry, tempered through countless clashes with every tribe and warband the frontiers could muster, thundered at her heels, trampling the coalition under their ponderous charge. Even in perfect order they might barely have held; a coalition paralyzed by terror, its morale in free fall, had no hope whatsoever of stopping the charge of the finest cavalry Lü Bu led. In the blink of an eye, the coalition descended into pandemonium.
The coalition's Fifth Army. The ground where Wang Kuang's forces were stationed was the first to give way before Lü Bu's incursion.
"Spare me—!"
"I don't want to die—!"
At the sight of Lü Bu—like some demon of slaughter scattering blood wherever she passed—Wang Kuang's soldiers broke and fled in every direction.
Unable to watch any longer, one of Wang Kuang's commanders hefted a massive spear and roared at her. "Lü Bu! Forget the soldiers—face me, commander to commander—!"
"Hm? Oh? Someone with actual guts."
Lü Bu, who had been carving up the coalition alongside her cavalry, turned to Zhang Liao at her side. "Don't overdo it—pull out when it suits you."
"...Understood. Do watch yourself out there."
Zhang Liao, aiding Lü Bu under Jeong Reung's orders, nodded and led her cavalry off, splitting away from Lü Bu. She had timed her strike well and was cutting through the coalition even now—but that would only last so long. By this point the coalition surely knew its vanguard was under attack, and would be throwing up every countermeasure they could think of.
What Lü Bu had her sights on now was one thing and one thing only: taking the heads of the highborn lords who commanded these armies. However massive the body, once the head flies off, it stops moving. And she intended to use this chance to seize a few of the lords strutting about as the grand "coalition" and put them down for good.
Lü Bu pulled up short, fixing her gaze on the commander who had moved to bar her way. "I'll give you credit for not running. Your name?"
"...Fang Yue!"
"Good." With a nod, Lü Bu lunged straight at him, the Sky Piercer Halberd sweeping around in a wide arc.
CLANG—!
"Ghhk!"
He was evidently a commander with a name of his own after all—Fang Yue turned aside Lü Bu's sudden strike on the shaft of his spear. At the man who had stopped her blow cold, Lü Bu's eyes went wide with genuine surprise. "Oh. You actually blocked that?"
"So this is what it takes to be called the Peerless Under Heaven!" His arms already quivering after a single exchange, Fang Yue sucked in a deep, steadying breath.
"HRAAAAGH—!"
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Convinced he was finished unless he ended it fast, Fang Yue whipped his spear through a rapid flurry of strikes. Lü Bu batted every blow aside without so much as a flicker of effort, smirking at the sight of him. "Finally—one of them who fights like an actual commander."
SHLUNK!
"...!"
"But I'm still the stronger one."
"Khhk!"
Five exchanges. At barely the fifth, Fang Yue found himself staring at the Sky Piercer Halberd that had punched clean through his chest, blood spilling from his lips.
"Sleep now."
"Forgive me... my lord...."
The moment Lü Bu wrenched the halberd free, Fang Yue slumped lifelessly from his saddle.
THUD!
"That's one down for now...." Lü Bu swept her blood-tinted gaze across the battlefield. The Wang Kuang troops around her were in full flight, past even the thought of resistance. Watching the cavalry under her adjutant carve up another coalition column, Lü Bu flashed a wolfish grin. "Next, that lot over there."
The battle was far from over.