Editing Strategies For Mountains and Valleys (section)

==In Valleys, Deploy for Defense==
As the sorcerous, fiery bird streaked towards him, [[Choshu Ishi]] threw out a prayer of thanks to whatever god had given him strength enough to use the Five-Dragon Blocking Technique when his archers let their volley fly.  He certainly needed its strength now, with no Essence left to call his own.  He cut his white jade sword, [[Hidden Riches]], through the bird's wing and turned its flight.

It wasn't far enough.  The bird-spell washed over Ishi and his men, burning past their armor.  A moment later, it exploded.  The men screamed; some ran, others could only drop to the ground and writhe in pain.  The inferno devoured the air like a hungry beast, and still the enemy's terra cotta soldiers clutched at Ishi and his men, trying to force them down.

Ishi stabbed Hidden Riches into the ground and the earth trembled.  He supported himself on the blade as he rose, and took a resolute step forward.  The spell's flames flickered away, their Essence spent, and the Ivory Dragon saw that Soi Fang and Smiling Tao were still with him, even though the rest of the Scale had scattered.  As the trio strode across the scorched earth, Ishi felt the chains of his enemy's Essence Disruption fall away and the Essence he had reclaimed flooded into his arms with the Strength of Stone.  "Not yet," he called.  "I'm not done yet!"

From where he sat his horse, two hundred yards away, [[Mayhiros Xenon]] pointed to Ishi's right.  "You will be," he shouted as his twenty five Black Thunder Lancers tipped their spears for the charge and started down the hill.  Ishi never broke his stride; he didn't have to.  

Tama Gui and [[The Zhuque Brotherhood]] leapt from the brush before the Lancers' charge, streaming flame from their fire lances in wide arcs.  The Lancers and their mounts were disciplined, but the Brotherhood were beings of terrible magic, and the fires of [[Cathak Nekuto]]'s anima raced through their skin.  They broke the Lancers charge and shattered their formation.  Ishi smiled.  His plan had worked; in the earth-shaking chaos of battle, no one had noticed the Zhuque Brotherhood slip away from his line.

Xenon cried out in rage and kicked his horse into a furious charge.  "No," cried the masked commander from behind him, but she was too late; Essence poured in a cloud off of Xenon, snaked across the ground, forced grass to grow from the beaten earth.  Xenon leveled his spear, Pine Needle, and Ishi raised Hidden Riches to meet its strike.  

The hills shook with the force of the blow, but Ishi stood unbowed.  He saw the enemy commander desperately signal for her archers to fire and their arrows, now lit with pitch, rained down around him as he answered Xenon's stroke with one of his own.  

Hidden Riches passed through Xenon's defenses, but the Exalt's armor, Four Layers of Bark, turned the blow aside.  The sword shifted in Ishi's hand, as if about to jump free, and the ground buckled beneath him.  He was thrown to his back.  That's when Xenon came around for his second strike.

Only Soi Fang and Smiling Tao saved Ishi, dashing between him and the blow, buffeting Xenon with a series of harmless, but confusing, strikes until the Ivory Dragon regained his feet.  

"Fight me without your lackeys," Xenon said, sneering.  "If you have the courage."  The Zhuque Brotherhood was working its way around the hill, maneuvering around to deal with the archers, who were already pulling back.  Smiling Tao and Soi Fang hovered nearby, waiting for Ishi's command.  But the Ivory Dragon's eyes were fixed on the masked woman behind Xenon.  He took a step towards her.

"I said fight me!"  Xenon spurred his horse between Ishi and his goal, but the Dragon Blood only sped on.  He raked Hidden Riches across the ground and when he lifted the blade it trailed glittering quartz, dragged up from the depths of the earth.  Blade and quartz struck Xenon with the force of the Mountain Toppling Method, and though the blade sliced through armor and flesh, the quartz took on a glittering dragon's shape, the jaws of which wrapped around Ishi's foe and pinned him in place.

Ishi moved only a handful of paces forward before the enemy commander called to him.  "You are more of a challenge than I thought you'd be.  I am Waterless Rain."

"Is that what you're here for?  A challenge?"

"Aren't you?"  Ishi could feel Waterless Rain's smile, even though he couldn't see it behind her mask.  "I left my command in [[Lookshy]] for seclusion because nothing they fought challenged my skills.  Xenon promised that your masters would be a more worthy test of my talents; if you are any measure, I see that he may be right."

"My lords take up arms against the [[Mask of Winters]], [[Ma-Ha-Suchi]] and, if they're unlucky, your native Lookshy as well.  [[The Marukan Alliance]] stands surrounded by enemies on every side.  If you would have a true test your talents, let that test be against foes that honed their skills in the First Age."

Waterless Rain was a long time responding.  Finally, she said, "Great foes, indeed.  But you feel your masters will win their war; that makes them the greater test for me.  

"Farewell, Choshu Ishi.  We will meet again."  Waterless Rain made a two-handed gesture and called forth the Ramparts of Obedient Earth.  Ishi surged forward, but Rain's terra cotta warriors fell over each other into his path while great piles of soil tumbled down from the hills and rolled up from the ground.  Within moments, a wall of earth blocked off the ravine.

Ishi lead with Hidden Riches and crashed into the wall with the power of his special technique, Submission to the Stone's Judgment.  The barrier never stood a chance, but when the dust cleared, Waterless Rain was gone.

The Ivory Dragon sighed and turned back.  Soi Fang was rounding up the scattered men, while Smiling Tao was seeing to the wounded.  Mayhiros Xenon was gone.  Ishi sighed.  Being a hero was harder than he thought.


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[[Heaven's Mandate]]