Huan continues to look at the Forest and lets out a deep sigh. "We will see what fate has in store for us."
He slowly turns to you and smiles wryly. "Say your prayers tonight, Rix. We will need the help."
The next day arrives, and the weather's nothing like you predicted. There's a storm outside and a downpour of water from the skies limits your vision, making it impossible to see beyond a hundred feet. You are informed that the approaching army of oni isn't slowing down, and is likely to arrive this afternoon. Everyone will have to assume their positions by noon so the joint army of kami and humans is ready to carry out the plan that was discussed earlier. Currently, while it's still morning, everyone's told to stay inside their tents.
"Probably to avoid a drastic decrease in morale," Huan mutters while looking at the skies from the tent's entrance. "Wouldn't do much good for everyone to stand outside in this weather for hours on end..."
He drops the flap at the entrance and moves over to the small fire you have burning in the center, where Aki and Yuka sit.
"I really hope it'll get better," Aki comments where staring at the tiny kami on top of your shoulder.
The tiny kami had arrived earlier this morning, just after you'd woken up. One had been 'commissioned' for every human in charge of a division, to allow you to make use of its ability to telepathically relay anything you'd like to say to any other kami or human in the joint army.
The name of the tiny fellow sitting on you shoulder turned out to be Box, and when he'd flown into the tent in the morning Aki had mistaken him for some kind of blue puffbird. Closer inspection of Box, who'd instantly taken offense to being called a bird, revealed that he has two tiny antlers and the eyes of a goat.
"What are you looking at?" Box comments in a far too low voice for his tiny body as he sees Aki look at him, still not entirely over the major insult and displaying a very uncharacteristically bad temper for a kami.
"Uhm... nothing..." Aki frowns and turns to look at Yuka, shrugging at the other girl while a bemused smile appears on Yuka's lips.
"Good," Box grunts, sounding like a weathered, old sailor after a rough day's work on the docks.
Rixin looks around the damp and crowded tent.
'Be polite, Box. Aki is a personal friend of mine and I won't have you being rude to her." the monk says firmly.
'The rain will be difficult on the horsemen." Rixin says, "and I doubt it will effect the oni much. Are we all prepared? Yuka, are you ready for this?"
"Today will not be a pretty day. From what I have heard of battles, much of what is to come can unhinge the strongest."
Your question about preparedness causes Yuka to instantly stop smiling. Her head and gaze turn downward and a look of anxiety crosses her face. "I'm... I'm scared..."
An uncomfortable silence hangs in the air, only interrupted by the sound of millions of raindrops hitting the tent's leather ceiling.
Huan then scrapes his throat. "I will stay by your side at all times, Yuka. Stay with me, and you'll be fine."
"I think it's best if we stay near the back of the division," he comments to you. "Ranged combat's my forte anyway, and I think it's better for Yuka."
Aki looks from Yuka to Huan, to you. "Where do you want me to be? I kind of assumed we'd all be standing together..."
"Maybe I can start of shooting arrows, then switch to my naginata as we close in? I could try to stay behind you and attack over your shoulder. I need the reach anyway with my weapon."
Rixin nods, "It is best if we all stay together. In the chaos of battle..I don't want us to be separated." The monk smiles a bit and says, "I feel I have personal responsibility to all of you...except Huan. He is his own problem."
He agrees with Aki adding, 'That sounds like a good plan. Stay close to me and cover me, I have to get up close and personal when I fight. It will be good to have you at my back."
"We will stay close then, but behind you," Huan responds curtly. "And keep in mind my niece is my first responsibility. We will move further back if I deem it necessary."
Yuka looks at Huan, then at you. You notice the girl gets a bit more anxious than she already was.
"I'm sure we'll be fine," Aki comments, hoping to her words will ease up the protective hunter and anxious girl. "We've proven to be a good team before, haven't we? And we'll be fighting with lots of others."
Huan's stern expression softens a bit, but you hear him mumble, "So will they..."
The sound of raindrops hitting the ceiling lessens and Huan quickly moves back to the tent's entrance, moving the flap aside to take a look outside. "The rain... it's passing."
A sigh of relief escapes from the mouths of Aki and Yuka, who laugh as they notice the other doing exactly the same thing. A smile slowly creeps on Huan's face. "We'll be fine... We will be..."
"Good," Box grunts again, causing the girls to laugh again when hearing the muscular voice leaves the tiny body. The tiny kami ignores the girls and announces, "I'm being told we all ought to get ready to move out. We will assemble once the rain's fully passed."
Your friends gather their stuff and wait for you at the tent's entrance. When the rain's fully passed you head out onto the soggy steppes and toward your assigned positions.
At Huan's first remark Rixin smiles, 'I think the kami will do more of the fighting then us, or the Khan, would like to admit. There is power in that host from the Forest..."
Trying to reassure Yuka, Rixin keeps up a stream of small-talk of his battle training with the monks as they take positions and wait. Then he adds, "You are doing good work here Yuka, being brave and standing your ground, defending your city. They'll write songs about us, you know. The Mighty Witch of the Woods, perhaps?"
Yuka cracks a smile at your comments, but whispers, "I feel out of place here... You're all much older and more experienced than I am. I'm just a small girl who knows a few magic tricks... If an oni like the ones we encountered earlier attacks me and my spells fail me... I have no idea what to do."
The teenage witch casts an anxious look at all the kami around her. "And there's a reason I put all those signs outside my house... It's scary to be around so many others..."
Aki places a hand on Yuka's shoulder. "Just stay close to us, Yuka. We'll have each other's back."
Aki gives you an encouraging smile, then fixes her gaze on the first wave of warriors and kami that's standing ready a couple hundred yards in front of your wave. It does however not take a genius to see that's Aki's also as nervous as can be, and just trying to look strong for Yuka's sake. The younger girl seems to notice and places her hand on Aki's. "Thanks, Aki..."
'I'd rather fight in a crowd of people myself." Rixin says nodding. 'Hard to fight an army alone."
Seeing the battle lines, the monk scans them for anything amiss.
Nothing happens for over an hour, but then Box suddenly speaks up with his gruff voice. "Message from the Khan: the oni are drawing near. First wave, stand ready to move over the hill and start the assault. everyone else, stand ready to follow when the signal's given."
There's some stirring within the ranks of the first wave.
"The oni are moving as predicted," Box continues. "No changes to the plan."
Rixin watches the moving troops, feeling oddly at peace, having a set part in a massive plan involving thousands.
The monk does mutter to Huan, 'How long until something happens that spoils the plan? Are you ready incase of the unexpected?"
"Always am," Huan responds. "Nature's a most unpredictable ally."
The first wave, filled with shielded lancers and sturdy but fast kami, starts moving for the hilltop in a steady pace. Once the wave reaches the hilltop the pace picks up. Horns sound in the distance, probably the oni's. By the time the last riders and kami disappear over the hilltop they're moving fast, charging at the army of of oni to close distance fast.
"Wave 3, move onto the hill but stay on your side. Stay OUT of the enemy's sight, but be ready to move past the hilltop," Box says, relaying the Khan's message to you. Not a single kami moves though; the entire wave's waiting for your order.
Rixin coughs and then says, to Box, "Let us take our place then, and wait for our moment of glory." he nods to the deep-voiced kami, "Relay the order."
With that the monk slowly makes his way to the mentioned hill, doing his best to indicate the host should stay out of sight.
You hear your order repeated inside you head as Box relays it to the entire wave. For a moment it looks like the kami will march beyond the hill, but a quick order to stop moving solves that.
On the other side of the hill, some distance away, you hear the sounds of battle. Weapons clashing against armor, shields, and other weapons, screams and yells, and the loud horns the oni use to give sections of their army orders.
"Second wave moving out," announces a high-pitched voice, definitely not Box, inside your head.
"Going..." replies the mighty voice of the Kami Lord.
More sounds are added to the battle. First there are the loud thundering hooves of those from wave two who are on horseback, followed by arrows taking flight from both armies. Then there's a loud crash, followed by plenty more crashes, as the giant kami that were hiding in the Forest emerge and attack.
It is odd hearing the sounds of a titanic battle, and yet not seeing it or taking part. By instinct the monk's pulse starts to race, blood pounding in his ears. he holds out one of his usually rock-steady hands and detects a tremor. If this is effecting him, a trained monk so...
"Tell everyone to hold," he mutters to Box, "We must stick to the plan."
Then he turns to Huan and asks the wily hunter, 'What to peek over the edge and see how things are going?"
Huan nods at you, his eyes meanwhile turning yellow and his facial features becoming sharper. "Will do."
Even you barely notice Huan going back and forth, and he's in plain sight of you. He's back before you know it.
"It's, uh... chaotic," the hunter says, not sure how to describe what he just saw. "The front of the oni's army hasn't entirely split up yet, as the plan was. The second wave seems to be decimating the back of their army, as we'd hoped it would. That Kami Lord and those other giants... You have to see that yourself, it's... carnage..."
Rixin swallows hard, imaging the scene in from of them. Slowly he shakes his head, 'No, if we all 'take a look' things will unravel. Is it almost time for us to move? Waiting is worse then fighting, sometimes."
Huan gives you an annoyed look. "How would I know, you're in command here?"
You feel Box shift on your shoulder. "No further orders yet, but I can give you a status update. Wave two is still dealing with the archers, but everything's going as planned for them. It looks like wave one will need our assistance splitting the front part of the oni's army in halves, as the plan was, but we are to stand down until the archers are dealt with."
The crashes and whizzing of arrows continues, but you gradually hear less arrows piercing through the sky.
"The lancers from wave two just made contact with the back of the oni's army. They're now flanking the oni archers with the kami that came from the Forest. About half of the archers has already been dealt with."
About a minute passes before Box the same voice as before speaks inside your head: "Most of the archers have been dealt with. What remains is now focused on wave two. Wave three, proceed forward and assist wave one in splitting the front of the oni's army."
A tremor passes through Rixin as he hears the news. He was about to lead a frontal charge of thousands of horsemen and kami.....
He drew a deep breath, place a hand on Aki's shoulder and nodded to her. 'Stay safe." he mutters to you then says to Box, 'Order them to follow...with haste"
With that he begins walking forward, quickly but not running, giving everyone time to notice and follow him.
It begins
As you move forward and up the hill the battlefield slowly unfolds itself. You first get a view of the back of the enemy's army; the Kami Lord and his fellow giant kami mowing through the ranks from the west, and the other half of the second wave flanking the oni's archers from the east. About half of the oni archers has already been dealt with. You then get a view of the main bulk of the oni's army and see the first wave, led by the Khan, has barely made a dent in it. You quickly estimate about 6000 oni are still standing in the main bulk, which is double the combined amount of kami and horsemen in the first wave.
The 3000 kami that are in the third wave you lead follow you with the same pace as you move. Aki's taken a position directly behind you, while Huan has taken and Yuka to a position just behind Aki.
You see a few of the oni notice your wave's appearance and start shouting. To reach the enemy's army and assist the Khan you have to cross a distance of roughly 700 feet.
As you cross the distance to the battle the oni start chanting. In the distance you see the Khan and his men from the first wave look around confused. When you're 300 feet removed from the edge of the battle, the oni finish their chant and the entire battlefield abruptly turns black.
Human voices scream out in pain as they're set upon by foes they can no longer see, kami voices yell inside your head about the oni using a communal darkness spell, and thousands of violent oni cheer as they cut down their distressed foes. You know the kami can see in the dark, but from what you're able to gather the horse mounted human half of the first wave is in such a panic that the kami fighting with them are being compromised and cut down with them.
Your entire wave slows down, but continues to move forward as a few of the kami near you start a chant of their own. More kami join the chant, and soon all the kami of the wave are chanting along. When the kami finish their chant a flash of bright light starts to emit from every single one of them.
"Our daylight spells will dispel their darkness," Box informs you as your wave's about to collide with the darkness ahead. "We won't see all of them appear at once, but every oni within our abilities' range will become visible."
As you then move into the darkness the light that's being emitted from the kami pushes it back, and a battle ready line of bloodthirsty oni's revealed to you.
There's a short pause from Box, followed by sigh of relief. "The Khan and a considerable contingent of the first wave survived. The kami with them did the same as us. We need to hurry though, they're being flanked from all sides."