Editing The Crow and Cloud Formation (section)

==Lightning Disperses the Clouds==
The gunchei had made little protest when [[Choshu Ishi]] had laid out his plan; they were too well drilled for that.  But not one of them could keep the disappointment and disillusionment from his eyes when Ishi had said, "I'll take the field, alone, before Madai's main gate, with the scale camped behind me, and challenge [[Mayhiros Xenon]] to single combat."  Chan Fei had even groaned.

"Xenon's pride as a martial artist will demand he answer and his men, who ride in the enclosure of his reputation, will flock to the walls to see.

"That's when Chan Fei and Han Ying will take their Fangs over the north wall, under cover of morning mist, and open the doors from within.  The rest of you, be ready."  They had smiled conspirational smiles, then, and gone to prepare their men.

For all their preparation, Mayhiros Xenon kept them waiting until the next evening; provoking the horselord had proved harder than Ishi had supposed.  But when he came, he came in splendor.  Whatever metal lay at the core of his lamellar armor was papered over by strips of still-living bark and in his hand he held his direlance, a single, thin green spike as befit its name.  He rode a black battler, a [[The Marukan Alliance|Marukani]] horse that, though less swift, was larger and stronger than even the finest. 

Ishi looked to his own simply straight sword and wondered if he hadn't made a mistake.  He had little time to reconsider, though, as Xenon came barreling down towards him.  The plains rolled before the horselord like a snake, the grasses themselves twisting in the waves and mystic patterns of his anima banner.  No probing strike for the enraged Xenon; he lead with the full force of his Heaven's Black Lightning Punch.

And Ishi stood ready to meet him.  No horse for the Ivory Dragons; earth aspects are at their strongest with their feet planted firmly on the ground.  So Ishi had assumed the wide-legged stance of the Five Dragon Form, sword arm close to his chest, the other leading, and let the power of his anima flare forth.  A colossus rose around him, a towering construct of white marble salvaged from an age long lost.  Veins of glittering mica ran across its surface, reflecting the last, dying light of day with martial purity.

The colossus mirrored Ishi's gesture as he raised his arm for the Five Dragon Blocking Technique, but even his Essence-enhanced skill was not enough to carry so weak a blade as the nameless straightsword to a successful parry against so mighty a strike.  Xenon's lance struck home with mountain-shattering force, driving through Ishi's white-enameled gunzosha armor and even his elementally-hardened skin.  

Only his instinctive call upon the Five-Dragon Fortitude saved him from death.  As it stood he was hurt and, worse, had exhausted his Essence reserves from the effort.  As Ishi spun his blade up for his own attack in response he wondered, for the second time, if he had made a mistake.