Dynasty Warriors 8 Ambition: Chapter 3

Once Zhang jiao had ran off, Zhenji attempted to play her flute to lull everyone in her garrison to sleep, however a lucky arrow pierced one of the holes in her flute.

"No... I can't play my Slumber Song now..."

A company of soldiers started making their way up the ladder to her garrison.

"This is ridiculous..."

Wu Huan wasn't doing so well. He was having a fight with Zhang Chao and it was clear who was winning. Wu Huan jumped and tried to do a heavy overhand strike with his great sword, but Zhang Chao evaded and managed to give him a shallow cut on the back.

"Forgive me My Lord... but I must retreat..."

He gave the oder and managed to retreat. Unfortunately, this gave Chao an opportunity to make it right to where Zhenji had been forced to fight the enemy forces off, completely cutting off any escape routes and heavily outnumbring her.

"Wu Huan, you idiot..."

She was trying her best, but without the ability to play most of her music there was no way she could win this. She turned around just in time to block an attack from Zhang Chao and tried to push him off, struggling to do so.

Zhang Jiao was doing relatively well. He had managed to take a force of exactly the right size to fight comfortably on the pathway they were on without being spread to thin. He was almost to the hallway that lead up to the throne room when he got a premonition from Heaven.

"All of you keep going, I have to go for now! A premonition from the heavens calls me!"

He called a horse forward and rode off to go and prevent his premonition of Zhenji getting killed.

Zhenji was having a hard time keeping her concentration n absolutely everyone that was surrounding her. That was to say, she was getting cut every now and then.

"I have to turn this around... I need to win so I can get out of here..."

She threw her flute like a boomerang at all of the surrounding enemies, but the flute had reached it's limits. Upon her catching it and attempting to hit Zhang Chao with it, the instrument snapped in two and Zhang Chao had managed to get ashallow cut across her body with his sword. Zhenji held her stomach, falling to her hands and knees.

"Is this... is this what it feels like to die young?"

Zhenji closed her eyes and accepted that she wasn't going to make it out of this place alive. She ws ready for the killing blow to be landed... but it never came. She looked up to see Zhang Jiao had taken care of the minor soldiers and was fighting off Zhang Chao.

"He... came to save me?"

Jiao tried to swipe at Chao's side, but he back stepped the staff attack. Chao then moved in and tried to stab Jiao, but Jiao dodged and slammed his staff into the side of Chao's head, making it explode for good measure. This knocked Chao out, and made Jiao start to breathe easier. He then turned to the wounded Zhenji.

"Zhenji, are you alright?"

Zhenji was speechless. She hadn't seen someone be so kind to her in her life.

"Why... why did you save me? Don't you have a troop to lead?"

Zhang Jiao smiled and held up his staff, using his sorcery to heal her.

"I could not bear the thought that you would die, for you are the first real friend I had made since I began this new Yellow Turban Rebellion."

Zhenji's eyes widened.

"You consider me a friend? We barely talked! And I..."

Jiao had raised a hand to silence her.

"Say no more. Wu Huan overheard you planning to escape me. However, I was told by the Heavens that you would not act on those plans."

Zhenji interpreted that as "I knew in my gut you wuldn't do it," and smiled at him.

"Well... I have to say that what you have done for me is impressive," she said before getting up, "I think I'll stay with you a little while longer and see how far you actually do make it."

This was of course a more dignified way to thank him for all of the kindness he had shown her.

Zhang jiao nodded.

"Very well then, you may return to the camp and get some well-deserved rest. I will return after Luoyang is ours."

With that, he got on his horse and started riding away.

"I eagerly await it," Zhenji said before walking back to the camp, finding a tear rolling down her face. Surprised, she reached up and brushed it off her cheek.

"You've made me shed a tear of happiness... I was beginning to think that impossible."

(Hope you liked Chapter 3! Don't worry, this battle will be done in the next chapter. To be honest I wanted to put the entire thing into one chapter, but it turned out way too long.)