Kingdom of Power, of Courage, and of Wisdom

Dragmire's War - Ouki's aid to Matsubi

-Link-

Link and his one-hundred rose after resting a short while. They gathered information on the terrain from scouts who Ouki supplied, and so Ganon organized them and created a stratagem. He explained it to Link (multiple times before he understood), and Link accepted it as good.

The strategy was quite simple, but would be difficult in execution. It required each and every man of the one-hundred to think of themselves as a whole unit, as opposed to individuals or as squads. They would make their way westward until they reached the hidden terrain, and then march north. They would pass the ruins of the ancient city on its eastern side, and yet continue north into the Zhao line.

This, naturally, terrified the men. They hid themselves against the rock wall as best they could, but they were openly exposed on the east. None of them lit torches, they covered their weapons, armor, and shields (as little as they had) and covered anything that could reflect the light. They bent their backs and lowered themselves to present less to be seen, and they moved slowly.

No one dared speak for fear the Zhao would hear them. The only sounds they could hear was the crunch of their leather shoes on the wasteland ground, and their own breathing. At periodic times, they would hear a mild gasp, before deathly silence, as Solitare moved above them. Ganon had instructed the Sheikah to assassinate any scouts the Zhao would have along their way. At first there were few, but as they inched their way further and further up the Zhao side, more and more scouts had to be silenced. At one point a scout did see them, reached for his horn to blow, and put it to his lips. Unfortunately for Zhao, he had no breath in which to blow, as Solitare had managed to pierce his windpipe in time, before pushing his body over the edge. The dead Zhao fell before Hei and Tou, and Hei was half-way into a sudden squeal, having not expected the body to land in front of him, when Tou managed to clamp his mouth shut. The miniscule peep Hei did let out caused all of the Qin to freeze in place and listen intently to know if any Zhao were alerted.

If they were to but raise their heads a little, the Zhao marching on Matsubi would have seen them or the Zhao hill on the east where Harken was would see them. The only one of them who dared risk it was the Sheikah, for Solitare was skilled at hiding in plain sight.

Solitare was a master of what would normally be associated with magic tricks and misdirection. Despite his small size, youth, and fragile appearance; or perhaps because of it, he is unusually unnoticeable, a trait that works well with his skill for misdirection. Solitare is capable of vanishing out of thin air with his faints to become near-invisible. He is further trained by the Sheikah to be unusually calm, decreasing his already low presence to near invisibility in its own right.

However there is a weakness. Solitare's skill requires a constant focus and perception of large scale surroundings, taxing his mental strength, and his stamina is low. The more tired he is, the harder it is to be hidden in plain sight. In addition, the more he uses misdirection tricks on someone, the less likely they will be misdirected each time, and they will inevitably become used to him. This is something that can be seen in Ganon and Link already, as they are slowly starting to notice him without him purposefully going out of his way to be noticed.

Before this battle, Ganon and Link had pushed Solitare to telling them these things. He was their trump card to getting all the way behind Zhao lines and back, and though Solitare would not tell them the training of the Sheikah in depth, he at the very least relented in telling them how they could best utilize him and he explained in more detail what his talents were.

Link's unit reached a point from where they were between the Zhao hills. On the east were soldiers and scouts so thick they could go no further. However, on the west, it was devoid of Zhao but the scant scouts that remained. All the Zhao had marched into battle with Matsubi.