L5r - scroll 05 - The Crab (25 page)

In fewer than ten minutes, Yakamo received the same signal from every general—we await your command. The entire Crab army stood ready.

"Forward!" Yakamo shouted and began to march.

The order echoed down the line to his left and right. It would take at least a minute for the message to reach the far ends of the army, but Yakamo knew that the wings of his force would not lag. The Crab army would march across the open fields of the Crane lands as a single, straight line of discipline and impending doom. They focused on a clear objective: to break through the Unicorn lines, return to Beiden Pass, and let
nothing
stand in their way.

To his surprise, the Shadowlands forces lined up alongside the Crab and marched to his orders. They were not nearly as organized or disciplined as Yakamo's samurai, but they were willing to take the battle to the Unicorn.

On the horizon the Unicorn army sat astride their horses. Their commander, Shinjo Yokatsu, was wily. He knew that he held the advantage of position—that the Crab needed to get past him. His samurai simply held their ground and made the Crab come to them. Perhaps he hoped the march would further tire his opponents or drive them into a frenzy of anticipation that would make them careless by the time the battle was finally joined.

All good plans, thought Yakamo, but all in vain.

The Unicorn were closer now. They no longer seemed a single swarming mass. Yakamo could clearly make out individual soldiers and even guess which commander they fought under, based on their stylized armor.

The Crab commander raised his claw in the air and snapped it loudly twice.

As one, his samurai drew their weapons and sped from a marching cadence to a slow trot. Occasionally a group of warriors would howl or bark out their enthusiasm. These were not threats to the enemy or even exaltations to their fellow Crab. They were wordless shouts of desire—wild, primal yearnings for the ring of steel against steel. Invariably, these shouts were echoed by the Shadowlands troops with true calls of wild abandon. The goblins and ogres were nearly frothing at the mouth, seemingly ready to fight anyone or anything just for the chance to release their animal passions.

The enemy was close enough that Yakamo could see the white clouds of their breath and feel the padding of the horses' hooves against the nearly frozen ground. He himself let out a ferocious roar and broke into a full headlong run toward the Unicorn line.

The rest of the Crab army exploded into full fury. The air filled with howls, shouts, curses, and growls. Yakamo felt he was surrounded by an army of wild animals—he felt he was an animal.

With a single slice of his katana through the air, the Unicorn commander released his samurai. They kicked their horses and urged them forward. By the time the two armies met, the cavalry was at full gallop.

Chaos reigned.

Horses thundered past the front ranks of Crab samurai and into the heart of the army. Yakamo repeatedly swung a tetsubo with his one good hand, succeeding in unseating three Unicorn riders as they attempted to pass. One snapped her neck in the fall from her steed. Another rolled directly into the midst of a group of Shadowlands zombies. His screams were terrible, but they did not last long. The third Unicorn landed right at Yakamo's feet with a teeth-rattling thud.

The Crab commander raised his weapon and brought it down toward the enemy's head.

The purple-clad samurai rolled to his left and sprang to his feet. He drew his katana and focused for the first time on his opponent. "By the kami, what
are
you?" the frightened Unicorn asked with unabashed horror.

"I am your death!" answered the Crab commander. His tetsubo knocked the sword from the stunned man's hand, and his left hand reached toward the Unicorn's throat. It was only when his black, metal claw closed around the man's entire face that Yakamo truly understood the samurai's terror.

Yakamo laughed as he crushed the life from his screaming foe.

xxxxxxxx

The battle was going well. Although the Unicorn cavalry was faster and better armored than the Crab forces, Yakamo's troops were determined. Their number was so large that once an enemy samurai's progress was stopped, she was instantly surrounded and dragged from her mount. Soon the Unicorn only worried the flanks of the Crab army. They were too afraid to penetrate to the heart of the corps.

"Onward!" shouted Yakamo. He waved his great black claw in the air.

As the force crested a small rise, arrows rained from the sky. Wave after wave of the deadly missiles fell, striking down dozens of Crab warriors.

Across the plain stood a cluster of Dragon Clan archers. As one rank unleashed a volley of armor-piercing arrows, another took aim, and a third nocked more projectiles. The barrage was nearly constant.

Yakamo rolled forward, and his army followed. No fewer than twelve more times, Dragon archers unleashed their fury on his troops. Hundreds of Crab warriors would not return to their stations on the Great Wall. Immediately he banished such thoughts. All that mattered was reaching the Dragon position and stopping the slaughter.

As the Crab drew within a hundred yards of the enemy, the archers changed their targets. Instead of firing into the heart of the Crab forces, they lowered their sights and fired directly at the front line samurai. Yakamo felt an arrow bury deep in his right shoulder and heard three more whistle within a few inches of his head.

He kept on charging.

With a mighty yell, the Crab commander swung his tetsubo in a long, flat arc, breaking three Dragon dai-kyu and solidly colliding with one archer's ribcage. Blades clashed and armor rent—the Crab were back where they belonged, in hand-to-hand combat. But the rising wind carried another sound to Yakamo's ears—a droning chant half-sung by a dozen or so voices.

Two of the samurai whose bows Yakamo smashed drew their wakizashi and flanked the Hida. They made menacing motions but never approached close enough to be struck by the Crab's massive club. Yakamo twirled his tetsubo in his casual way, some-limes feinting a lunge at one Dragon or the other. They were patient and observant—this could be trouble.

Cautiously the little circle of samurai stalked through the battle. Around them warriors from both sides fought and died, but these three had eyes only for one another. As they stepped over the bodies of fallen goblins and kicked aside shattered weapons, the wind continued to rise. Soon dust swirled in tiny cyclones at their feet, and dead summer grass blew into their faces. It was becoming increasingly difficult for Yakamo to keep his eyes clear and focused on his opponents.

Then, past one of his attacker's shoulders, Yakamo saw who was chanting. In a hollow just over the next ridge sat a circle of Phoenix Clan shugenja. Some drew arcane symbols in the dirt, others waved their hands about wildly, and others sat as still as stones. They all chanted in unison.

The howl of the wind rose to a heady pitch. Behind Yakamo, troops shouted in chaos. One voice rang clearly through the din, his uncle Tsuru's: "The very ground is alive! Fall back! Move aside! Get out of—"

Yakamo made a quick turn to see what had become of the general, but he could not find him anywhere. The wind battered his men mercilessly, and the ground roiled like a pot of boiling rice. Tsuru's horse dashed madly away from the chaos, but of the man himself there was no sign. Then, with a sound like a ruptured bellows, the missing samurai fell from the sky and landed not twenty yards away. He coughed and gasped for air like a drowning man just pulled from the water.

One Dragon mistook Yakamo's shift of focus for complete distraction. He lunged at the Crab commander and nearly had his nose taken off by a reflexive snap from the Hida's claw.

"Tsuru!" Yakamo shouted to his uncle. "I've two very green dragons here. Would you care to help me make sure they never grow more seasoned?"

The dazed general stood and drew his wakizashi—he'd lost his katana in the fall—and took a few halting steps toward his nephew. He was going to be no help at all, but Yakamo
knew
that. He had no intention of drawing his uncle into the fight. Instead, his plan was to draw his opponents' attention away from him— and that ploy worked perfectiy.

Both Dragon samurai shifted their positions to account for another combatant.

Yakamo dropped his head and shoulders and bulled into the nearest one. He collided with the force of an earthquake and knocked the man fifteen feet backward. Yakamo could easily have followed up and slain the Dragon, but his attention was now focused squarely on the Phoenix shugenja. If they weren't stopped, their spells could decimate the entire Crab force.

Thankfully, such spells required complete concentration, which was why the shugenja were hidden in this hollow. Yakamo charged into the middle of their circle without raising a single cry of alarm. He swung his tetsubo in a looping figure eight, striking one spellcaster after another. At the same time, he lashed out with the flat of his claw, bashing it against the skulls of the few shugenja who scrambled for somewhere to hide.

Behind him, the winds dropped off almost immediately. The panicked retreat of his troops halted soon after. The allied forces were in even greater disarray. They'd done quite a bit of damage to the Crab army, but in the end the ferocity of Yakamo's samurai drove the Unicorn, Dragon, and Phoenix from the field.

Hida Tsuru's war-horse came trotting up to its master. Even in the midst of batde, the creature came to his uncle's side.

Yakamo approached the general, who was just beginning to regain his breath.

"Spread the word," he said grimly, "this battle is over. We don't have time to clean up the enemy stragglers. Only one man could get these three clans to put together such an organized defense on such short notice. And since Toturi isn't here, he
must
be leading the assault against my weakling brother at Beiden Pass!"

xxxxxxxx

"Ha! Three quarters of their troops on horseback, and they can still barely keep up with us!" Hida Amoro turned and ran backward for a few steps, admiring the way the Crab army outpaced the Unicorn cavalry that followed them. The grassy plains of the Crane lands grew rockier as they neared the mountains called The Spine of the World.

"We have two advantages," said Yakamo curtly. "We know where we're going, and unlike their horses, we are willing to run for two days and nights without rest if the cause is sufficient. However, we may still fall prey to our own overconfidence."

Amoro stumbled as the ground became more uneven. Embarrassed, he faced forward and returned to his double-time march.

"They may not be able to worry us just now, but our Unicorn shadows will be able to keep us from veering too far off our current path as we approach the pass."

Yakamo drove his army harder than any other commander in the empire would—even his father. But he did so because he
knew
that Toturi waited at the north end of Beiden Pass. At least he
hoped
Toturi waited and hadn't already taken the pass from Sukune.

To the west, the sun dropped closer to the horizon. In less than three hours, the chilly day would turn into a freezing mountain night. Fortunately, they were less than an hour from the pass.

Yakamo thumped Amoro in the chest with the back of his hand.

"Drop back and tell the generals that when we get within sight of the entrance, we break into a full charge. No one is to stop to engage the enemy unless absolutely necessary. I want the entire army in the pass before darkness falls."

"But what if your brother has failed to hold it?" Amoro asked.

"Then we will take it back."

xxxxxxxx

"They've surrounded us! We're doomed! We'll never make it out alive!"

The Dragon lieutenant was only one third correct. The Crab and Shadowlands warriors attacking their rear were not from the same force as those in the pass, so they were not technically surrounded. The attackers were more concerned with getting past his men rather than crushing them, so they were not technically doomed. The lieutenant, however, did come face to face with Hida Yakamo, who reached out his claw and crushed the man's skull without breaking stride, so he himself never did make it out alive.

Nearly half the pass was now disputed territory. Sukune's forces, bolstered only slighdy by Shadowlands warriors, fought to keep Dragon and Unicorn samurai from solidifying their hold on important junctures.

Yakamo's arrival turned the tide. Terrified by the appearance of the new howling, blood- and sweat-covered troops, the enemy withdrew back to the north end of the pass. But Sukune's samurai were in no shape to hold such gains.

Yakamo turned to Amoro and said, "Take your men and Tsuru's to the final bend in the pass. Do not allow the enemy more than twenty yards into the canyon. Make
certain
they do not take the ridge overlooking the entrance."

"Hai!" said the exhausted samurai. He ran off at full speed to complete his orders.

Sukune's troops gathered around Yakamo and his men, clapping them on the back and saying things such as, "It's about time you got here!" and "Your timing couldn't be better!" and "Now we'll hold the pass for sure/" They did not, however, seem at all glad to see the Shadowlands troops. In fact, they looked at them with deep suspicion.