Kingdom of Power, of Courage, and of Wisdom

Dragmire's War - Link's Courage

-Ouki-

Ouki Mitagi watched the battle play out. With a discerning eye he could tell Moubu's formation had worked. While the Zhao and Qin were equal in number, and the Zhao army was filled with more experience and elite soldiers, the ripple effect Moubu had tried to make had shaken the Zhao formation and allowed them to return to even footing. The losses were high on both sides, but it was at least an equal match.

When on the defensive, the equal losses were acceptable. It was Zhao who was overextending itself by going into enemy territory, not Qin.

Although if Moubu's reputation was to be believed, he would make the Zhao pay for it. Moubu's plan was to curl his right-most flank into the side of the Zhao vanguard and pierce through like a spear to the heart.

Another plume of fire erupted within the Zhao line, and Ouki raised an eyebrow. He knew of no one who could control fire like that. Well... not since the Dragmire clan and the Majora witches. "Dragmire..." His blood curled. As much as he appreciated the effort Ganondorf Dragmire was putting in on behalf of Qin, and was being as loud as possible about it, just knowing a Dragmire was in his ranks made his blood churn with anger.

Once he called the Dragmire's friend.

Now he had nothing but hate for them. They had betrayed Qin. They had betrayed him. They had taken from him everything he held dear.

Ouki took a breath and forced the emotions away. He knew to be calm as high general. "Send my orders to the commander Matsubi and commander Kei Ki. General Moubu is forcing Zhao into a stalemate here. They know what they must do."

"Sir!" An officer saluted, and orders were relayed by flag signals to the distant command centers of their eastern and western flanks.

He looked onto the battlefield and saw a group of things charge forward toward the middle battle that he had never seen before, at least in not such numbers. He had seen one or two of them before, but this many?

"Chariots!" The Englishman exclaimed. "They have chariots?!"

"You are familiar with them?"

"Yes, sir. They are terrible on infantry! If we do not do something, our forces will be torn apart!"

"Infantry..." Ouki looked on the battlefield with a strategic eye. The chariots were charging towards the right flank where Moubu was fighting. "They mean to circle around and cut off Moubu from the rest of his army!" Ouki looked to the Englishman. "Go and prepare your strike force! Zhao will not settle for a stalemate. They seek to take Moubu's head!"

The Englishman saluted and departed.

True to his prediction, the fleet of chariots turned suddenly into Qin's line behind Moubu, cutting him and his elite off from the rest of the army and encircling him. Only... rather than target Moubu... the chariots charged into the Qin line from east to west.

They were not aiming merely to trap Moubu, they were aiming to kill as many Qin as they could.

"This... could be bad." Ouki realized. He had not predicted Zhao would muster a technology he had never heard of. Moubu was strong, and he had faith Moubu would not die to such a cheap tactic, but this still would mean a drastic loss of life and could mean defeat in the long-term.

-Link-

Try as they might, Link found they could barely keep up with the Zhao. The Qin soldiers had powerful momentum going in, thanks to Moubu, but the momentum only went so far. It was at this point that the true flaws of a peasant army revealed itself. Everywhere Link looked men were being cut down. His triangle flared to life, and he sprung into the fray wherever he could find it, but for every Zhao he cut down, two more took their place. It was quickly getting to the point that Link could barely keep up. Thankfully, he had a team. Every group he threw himself at quickly noticed he was the greatest contender of the moment, and Hei, Tou, and Solitare made sure he was never surrounded. They had his back and did as Ganon instructed: They worked together and focused on the same targets.