Editing Strategies For Mountains and Valleys (section)

==In Mountains, Occupy the Heights==
[[Mayhiros Xenon]] all but bounced in his saddle as [[Choshu Ishi]], unwitting, marched his talon into the valley.  "We've got them now.  Order the archers to fire and I'll..."

"No," said Xenon's companion, a woman who rode no horse and whose face was locked away behind a white porcelain mask - a woman named [[Waterless Rain]], the Lost General.  

"What do you mean, 'no?'" said Xenon.  "He's got no formation, he's perfectly vulnerable to an arrow attack!"

"The sages say that the art of warfare is the art of deception.  Is Choshu Ishi vulnerable or does he only wish to make himself seem so?  If the later, we waste our moment on archery; if the former, superior tactics will serve to crumble his forces just the same."  Waterless Rain turned her head towards Xenon; he could just make out her eyes behind the mask, and they were as placid as the face she wore.  "If he is vulnerable, though, he is not the superior foe you said was worthy of my emergence from seclusion."

Xenon suppressed a shudder.  "I [[The Crow and Cloud Formation|fought him at Madai]] and found him crafty, if over-bold.  But this Ivory Dragon isn't the foe I told you about.  He is but a servant."

"Superior masters have superior servants."

"Then push your skill at war to its limit.  Defeat the servant to draw out his masters."

Waterless Rain sighed; it was a sound of resignation, the noise of one who is long used to the world's small disappointments and has come to accept them as unavoidable.  "A simple task, if he can't draw upon the power of his Essence.  Behold!"  

The strategos stamped her foot into the dirt and snapped her hand forward in the three-fingered gesture of the Essence-Disruption Attack.  Static Earth Essence poured into the Ivory Dragon and his two song-filled relays, sealing off their chakras, while a backlash of Essence poured through Rain's anima, kicking dust high into the air and raising a legion of terra cotta warriors from the earth.  

"Second formation," the enemy commander shouted, and his relays took up the call.  Waterless Rain saw the pair posture, but only the Ivory Dragon could muster up the inner will to use a Charm; the air around him glowed as he invoked an Aura of Invulnerability.  The Essence of the extra effort bled into his anima and a towering colossus of stone rose solid-spectral around him.  This Choshu Ishi was brave, Rain had to grant him that, and he had his men's loyalty - none of them hesitated when he called for their rush forward, towards her and Xenon.  

"But his bravado outweighs his intellect after all," Rain said, and she invoked the Elemental Battlefield.  The earth shook, stone columns shot up from the ground and the terra cotta warriors of her anima rushed forth en mass to grapple with the enemy.  Only Choshu Ishi, Ivory Dragon that he was, held firm; his men and horses staggered left and right, fighting just to keep their feet beneath them let alone press their charge.

That was when Rain waved on the archer's first volley.

But Choshu Ishi's men were just too damn good.  Even when they couldn't charge they kept to small, five-man fangs, held their shields above their heads and turned back most of the arrows.  Ishi hung back with his men and dropped into the Five-Dragon Form.

Waterless Rain breathed deep.  She closed her eyes of flesh and opened her inner eye as she shaped a spell of the Emerald Circle in her mind.  She only dimly heard the roars of battle, but the Ivory Dragon's desperate cries of "Arrows!  Arrows!" rang clear, and the iron sound of Xenon's spear and horse's hooves told her that at least some of the shots would have struck true despite the Elemental Battlefield.  Well-trained men, indeed.

But it was too late for them.  Behind her mask, Rain opened her mouth and let loose a cry that sang like a hawk on the hunt as a great bird of fire sped away from her outstretched hand.  "Flight of the Brilliant Raptor!"