Winter 67, 124
The Futo and Moonflower clans' army had just taken over a fairly large village, a place they were using to resupply... the world was in total chaos which meant that this was the perfect time to make things even worse… to destroy everything they hated and continue the destruction of the Huo Clan as they had planned from the start of this war. The occupying force was massive, easily over 200 members and not everyone was able to fit in the small village so there was numerous camps located outside the village and around it.
From the distance there were numerous guard patrols walking around in and out of the camps keeping an eye for the Huo forces that had tried to thwart them beforehand. They were prepared and it would be twice as difficult to break the army this time, death was imminent for any stragglers that decided to show their face.
Word of the village's fall had spread, and the defending leadership was more than happy to graciously send military back up to help. They had approached the area, but were careful to maintain a safe distance. Whether or not the defenders were sending any more warriors was unknown. Still, they would focus on gathering information in the meantime.
Kage had only met up with the Huo forces the previous week but he'd already made himself useful. He took the form of a beautiful young jin'norai female and had little difficulty working 'her' charm to his advantage. He'd even offered to help with an operation to help sow chaos in the newly occupied village. Not that he cared about it, but because he thought it might be a good opportunity to put some haerpsi in opportune spots for espionage purposes.
Kage spent much of the week going around collecting birds to use as scouts as he developed his relationships. He used his powers to kill and make minions out of each of them. These would be his primary means for gathering information, flapping about the campsites. Outdoors in cold weather, nobody would think much of birds in the camp, especially since they looked entirely normal. Kage would make a point of spreading out so far they could not be recognized as a cohesive group. They would keep their eyes out for anything useful, such as patrols, placement of key resources, and any other information that might allow the group to take a more tactical approach to the pending assault.
The other Huo soldiers who had been sent were also quite competent in their own right. Shin knew that he would need to conserve his strength for the fight ahead. He knew that he had little in the way of information gathering skills that could help them, but he would make up for it when the time for combat came. Hal, by that same token, sat and waited patiently for the action to commence.
Shin barely had time to gather his own pieces up from the recent distraction of his own village when he had gotten word that the army that had nearly killed him was started to come back to reclaim its prize that he had already robbed them of once.
"Not even a moments peace in this damn country," Shin would say as he took off from the backlines after a few nights sleep and started down toward a small camp. This camp contained two people he had previously worked with or was familiar with, so one could say it was kind of like a home coming. It would take about a day or so for him to get there, he didn't want to draw to much attention to himself, after all he needed to keep his appearance low key, because it was more than likely true that most of those men remembered who Shin was. As he got there, he would see the two of them there, Hal, and this newcomer named Kage.
"I hope I didn't miss anything fun yet?" Shin said in a hushed voice, he was sure to not let his guard down as attack could come at any time, but the closer he got, the safer he felt that he could speak.
"The army seems... stagnant. Maybe its best if we have scouts watch for movement. If they have more forces coming, striking now could be suicidal."
The others would nod and agree, and part their separate ways. They each had their own job to do.
As the birds found their way around the camp they would gather information noticing that the supply crates where positioned on the north, south, east, and west entrances of the camp sight. The largest tents were positioned at the North and Center of the camp sight, the largest of the two was the one positioned at the north entrance. They would also take note that the patrol paths were set up as so that the groups would meet up two at a time at each entrance every 10 minutes. Through that time the patrols were only switched once within 12 hours as one bird would notice as a group of men were resting and talking about how they figured that the guards who came for them the first time was probably so badly beat that he would be hospitalized for months.
Taking further notice of the tents there the birds would notice that there were also 3 more medium sized tents at the south, east, and west points of the camp and men where going in and out of them periodically approximately every hour in groups of 7.
It was still high afternoon and time was slowly moving but from the distance it was obvious assignments were being given out and messages were being sent through out the camp to various locations. Kage would relay the intel to Hal and Shin before leaving, though he never let on exactly how he could gather intelligence so well. In any case, Hal knew precisely what he needed to do. His familiar was a perfect duplicate of himself. All the Huo that Kage had been sent here with had familiars, for that matter.
One of them would leap into the area atop a tall tree on the south flank, and immediately begin to play his flute to cause a distraction. He was to draw as much attention to himself as possible. He kept his eyes on the crowd, whom would almost immediately be setting the alarm at this point. He had made a point of getting a great distance from the others so all the attention could come to him.
He sprung from the tree and run toward the compound, having given ample time for the distraction to take full effect. "Hit me with your best shot!" Flashy as always
Shin would smile as he took off in the opposite direction of the flute performance. He couldn't heard it anymore but he knew it was having the intended effect. Closing in on the camp, Shin would keep low and flank around the left side making sure to keep an eye out for any sentries that had not moved to see what the commotion was, any straggling people that had gotten in his path would quickly be dispatched by his crossbow.
Shin would wait on the other side of the base until it seemed like everyone was either attacking at the familiar or staring in that general direction, and when it was so, he would act. Stomping on the ground Shin would use his powers to create slabs of earth to shoot out of the ground, and in a spinning motion he would fire as many bullets as he could, setting each one to explode in the next few seconds. He would then with as much force as he could, to control the shards of earth into the air above the camp. His goal was to rain down death on their way down like shrapnel. He then took off into the camp, killing as many people as possible with his pistols as possible.
As the familiar had started the distraction majority of the camp would be in an uproar as there were sounds of gear being collected and readied as they went to the south end to confront front the familiar. The group look fearsome but none the more fearsome than the sound of something whistling through the air. The sound was loud and covered the entire area, the sound was sharp, sharp enough to cause intense pain in the ears immediately upon hearing it and if no pain was cause it would cause temporary deafness. There were some who were more resistant to the magical attack. They pulled away a very scrawny soldier who was huddled on the ground clutching his ears crying. The familiar would then be hit dead on with about 10 arrows and shredded to bits.
Kage had taken advantage of the distraction, slipping into the camp and looking for the target he'd been given. It was difficult for him to be a combatant as the bulk of his duties required him to keep an eye from the skies. Tapping into the vision of so many different birds distracted him greatly. Really he ought to have stayed back and hid himself in the trees… but some things had to be done in person since he couldn't just send a large construct lest it somehow get traced back to his people.
He focused in on one such bird that was keep track of Shin. He was using his affinity with earth to launch more and more rocks but they were getting destroyed by a large barrage of whistling arrows. The occupying forces were surprisingly prepared for an ambush like this. As Shin ran into the compound he would notice the medium sized tent had two impaled guards in front of it and a woman around his age would appear out of the tent wearing metal armor. Her features slender yet strong her hair jet black. A katana would be hanging from her hip but she would have no time to draw it as she caught the sharp blades of Shin's own blade with her gauntlet.
Its metal was hard and was barely scratched but it seemed to be light weight enough for her to pull off a last minute block.
Kage chuckled as he made his way towards them. He couldn't have Shin dying. Kage commanded the birds in the sky to start circling up above to give a broader view of the area. He could see a few of them getting shot out of the air – they probably assumed now that the birds were familiars as well. "Fair enough, if they want to waste time with the birds, that'll just leave them more distracted," he thought.
Kage rounded a corner and noticed that it was time to let the sparks fly. He saw Shin's blade was caught by a gauntlet. It seemed she had the strength to stop a un-enhanced attack – remarkable if they didn't know there were exceptionally strong members among the camp's forces.
Shin's fist would open releasing the sword but just as quickly as he had let go, he cocked his fist backwards, the rush of air would suck the poor girl closer into Shin's range. Just as soon as his fist came back with enough power and speed to pull the girl toward him, it would go forward, the power of the attack would not send her flying backwards no, it would transfer all of the destructive power directly into her body. With his hand contacting the poor girls body, Shin tried as quickly as possible twist his fist and open it, two fingers would point toward her as he pushed them forward using his aether to harden a layer of air around his fingers. He hoped that it would be hard enough to pierce her armor as though his fingers were bullets fired from a gun.
Kage shook his head, so much energy wasted on just a single soldier? He could already see that Shin was showing signs of fatigue. He had probably already expended enough to warrant retreating. And yet… he hadn't overcome his opponent yet. As Shin drew back his fist he felt a very familiar feeling right next to his face, the feeling of cold hard metal closing in to the side of his temple. It was closing in fast enough to interrupt his attack, it would pierce any defense he managed to throw up and would likely result in death with a hard hit to the temple.
His only option was to disengage or die. Regardless if he pulled away or took the attack he would find his self facing off with another girl that looked identical to the first but with shoulder cropped hair and the metal arm gauntlet she wore was on her right arm instead of the left. Her body was much slimmer than her sisters and she wore shorts instead of pants but the boots she wore would indicate they weren't normal boots they were heels that had sharpened backs.
Even at a distance Kage could tell that these two women were not to be underestimated. They would reel back slightly before jumping forward with their blades drawn. Wind seemed to erupt from their blades, cutting into Shin's armor and throwing him backwards where he would be wide open for getting killed.
All Shin could think about was how badly he wanted to get back to murdering every last one of the soldiers in this army and that he might not get to fulfill his mission. Thankfully, he wouldn't be dying quite yet. An arrow tore through the air and nearly split open one of the Moonflower swordsman's heads except they'd seen Kage drawing back his bowstring and had slashed their sword in time. A gust of wind threw the arrow off at the last moment.
Kage strafed in a semicircle around the women and fired in rapid succession. He knew he would never be able to hit any of them so long as they kept manipulating the wind with their blades… but he didn't need to hit them. He only needed to distract them long enough for the others to find an opening. They realized this and started to charge at him, not knowing that Kage wasn't a pushover in closer quarters either.
Being a veteran of fighting with aeromancy, Hal and his familiars were no longer bothered by loud noises. Mostly because they had slowly gone deaf over years.
As an extra precaution, he would send a streak of lightning into the sky which would most definitely catch attention of at least a decent portion of the group. While Hal was maintaining his distraction, Kage finally got his chance to hit one of the women with an arrow. He couldn't hit the other, however, as they had closed the distance and were trying to cut into him.
"Not today," Kage muttered as he twirled his bow and used it to block the slash. He blocked the blade, but a gust of wind accompanied the slash and he got forced backwards into a wooden hut. He braced himself and formed a layer of wood around himself to defend against blunt impact. His body barreled through it and he ended up rolling on the ground and spitting out blood. That had hurt.
"Fluffy, where the hell are you?" Kage asked through his treant that he kept in her ear.
"We were in position, but something's out here!" she squeaked. She sounded terrified.
"What is it?" Kage asked in annoyance as he got to his feet. His whole body ached and he had to lean on the edge of another building just to stay standing. He focused healing energies into his body which alleviated his most immediate concerns. He could see distortions in the wind but they weren't meant for him. It would seem that the swordsman had turned her attention to someone else for the time being. That was good, because Kage did not feel like getting thrown through another building.
"We were going to enter the village as planned, but there's something out here. Some kind of teleporting animal… I think it's a familiar. It's… Ahhhh!" Fluffy's screams made Kage wince. Whatever she was dealing with, it was clear that she wasn't going to be joining them. A teleporting animal did sound intriguing though. Perhaps he would have to get Fluffy to bind to one in the future. If she survived anyways.
Kage shook his head and got back to work. He entered the tents that were obviously for important people. He put his hand onto the ground in the corner of the room and grew some haerpsi there. Then he tethered himself to it. It would allow him to listen to whatever was going on. Espionage was his specialty and having some ears in an important looking place like this. He moved some furniture so that it would conceal the plant.
There was another flash of lightning, some more bangs of guns… it was time to go. Kage hurried out of the tent and made his way to the edge of the village. There weren't any walls to protect it so leaving was a simple matter. When he regrouped with Fluffy he noticed that she looked incredibly tired. So did her tiger.
"It was a tiger. A black one… so fast," Fluffy said between breaths.
"I take it you beat it?" Kage asked.
"No, more like scared it off. Still, it was terrifying."
"At least you survived. Now, where are the others I wonder…"
"Right behind you," Shin said with a grin. Hal followed closely behind. The goal had been to sow a little bit of chaos and they'd been quite successful.
"How many did we end up killing?" Kage asked curiously.
"Eh, not many. I think I got a couple. I injured plenty though," Shin said with a thumbs up.
"Well, we ought to be getting back before they find out where we went," Hal said, looking over his shoulder.
"You're right, let's get going."
Kage:
Novice x15 saol creating bird treants (cost spread over a week)
Journeyman x1 saol creating wood for defense
Expert x1 saol for healing
Expert x1 saol for growing haerpsi
Novice x1 saol for raising/tethering the haerpsi into a treant
.81 master reserves spent, excluding the birds
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