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In the main watchtower of Hongnong, the highest command post of the Wei defenders, the mood was starkly different. The air was thick with the smell of dust, ink, and a pervasive, grim anxiety. Cao Cao stood at the wide observation slit, his hands clasped tightly behind his back.
The debilitating headaches that had plagued him were gone, burned away by the adrenaline of the crisis. His eyes, deep set and endlessly calculating, scanned the battlefield.
Around him, his own brain trust worked. Guo Jia, pale due to exhaustion and wrapped in a heavy cloak, directed the defense with a stream of quiet, fever bright commands, his mind seemingly hovering above the chaos, seeing patterns no one else could.
Xun Yu translated those insights into practical orders for messengers. Xi Zhicai, Jia Kui, Cheng Yu, and Tian feverishly updated maps and tracked unit movements. Xu You lurked at the edges, his expression unreadable.
Cao Cao's gaze was drawn inexorably to the largest breach, the one threatening to become a floodgate. He saw the knot of relentless violence, the spot where his defensive lines were buckling not from strategy, but from sheer, concentrated force.
"Who is that?" Cao Cao asked, his voice deceptively calm. "At the center of the breach. The one in the dark armor."
Guo Jia didn't need to look. He had been tracking that particular storm since it hit the wall. "Thats Lie Fan," he said, the name hanging in the air. "He is the variable we could not calculate for, Your Majesty. His personal strength… it is more than martial skill. It is a psychological weapon. He suppresses our men's will just by being there, and inflames theirs. In a siege of this duration, where morale hangs by a thread, such a figure can be the weight that snaps it."
Cao Cao nodded slowly, a low hum of agreement in his throat. He watched, his jaw tight, as Lie Fan's halberd swept aside two more of his soldiers, creating space for a dozen Hengyuan troops to surge forward.
He saw Huang Zhong's implacable advance, the ferocious synergy of Zhang Liao and Taishi Ci. This was no longer a general directing a battle, this was a legend writing its final, bloody chapter on the stones of his last stronghold.
A cold, focused resolve settled over Cao Cao's features. The competitive fire, the grudging respect, all of it crystallized into a single, tactical imperative. This focal point of enemy morale and power had to be blunted, or better, broken.
He turned from the observation slit, his voice cutting through the tower's tension. "Summon Zhang He, Xu Chu, Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Yuan, Xu Huang, Cao Hong, and Cao Ren."
The order sent a ripple through the room. He was calling forth his own warriors, his own pillars of strength. These were not just generals, they were the champions of the Wei, each a formidable force in their own right.
When the seven warriors stood before him, their armor bearing the fresh scars of the day's fighting, Cao Cao's instructions were precise and chilling.
"You see the breach," he said, pointing. "You see the man at its heart. He thinks to win this war with his own two hands. We will disabuse him of that notion."
His eyes landed on the massive, ox like form of Xu Chu and the agile, deadly Zhang He. "Xu Chu. Zhang He. Your task is Lie Fan himself. Contain him. Distract him. Wear him down. You do not need to kill him, though if the opportunity arises, take it. Your goal is to remove him as the focal point."
He then looked at the others, the stern Xiahou brothers, the steady Xu Huang, and the loyal Cao cousins. "The rest of you. You see the wolves at his heels. Huang Zhong, Zhang Liao, Taishi Ci, and the bodyguards. Isolate them. Engage them. Pull them away from him. If Lie Fan stands alone, even his myth has limits. We will cut the head from the serpent, or at the very least, sever its fangs."
It was a desperate gambit, committing his best commanders to a single, knife edge duel on the wall. But Cao Cao understood the nature of the fight now. This was no longer just about walls and gates, it was about narratives.
It was about proving that the heart of the Wei still had heroes to match the Hengyuan's God of War. As his champions bowed and rushed from the tower to join the fray, Cao Cao returned his gaze to the breach. A faint, grim smile touched his lips. The duel of emperors had just become a clash of champions.
Meanwhile, on the blood slicked expanse of the wall, the rhythm of conquest had been a brutal, steady drumbeat for Lie Fan and his cadre.
They had carved out a widening crescent of control, a beachhead of carnage where Hengyuan soldiers poured in behind the wake of their living legend. Lie Fan moved with a predator's economy, his halberd an extension of his will, each swing clearing space, each thrust finding a seam in the weakening Wei defense.
Huang Zhong was a stoic pillar of death to his left, Zhang Liao and Taishi Ci a whirlwind of synchronized violence to his right, and the two Yellow Ghosts were silent, immovable bulwarks at his flanks, catching stray blows and shattering counter attacks with their tower shields.
Lie Fan's mind, even in the heart of the melee, was calculating. He barked orders over the din. "Push left! Secure that tower platform! Archers, suppress the rear ranks!" He could feel it, the momentum was theirs.
The Wei defenders were fighting with the desperate courage of the cornered, but their cohesion was fraying. If they could maintain this pressure, if they could fight their way to the mechanism of the main gate…
It was then that the animal instinct honed by a thousand battles screamed a warning in the back of his skull. A shift in the air, a sudden focus of lethal intent cutting through the general chaos of battle.
He didn't think, he reacted.
Spinning on his heel, he swept his halberd up in a diagonal block just as two weapons materialized from the press of bodies, a massive, crude rod hammer that could shatter stone, and a sleek, deadly spear aimed with serpentine precision.
CLANG! SHRIEK!
The impact jarred up his arms, a twin shockwave of brute force and focused skill. His boots skidded back on the gore streaked stones. With a grunt of effort, he channeled the force, twisting his halberd and shoving outward, sending both attackers reeling back a step to regain their footing.
He took the moment to jump back, creating a sliver of space, his eyes assessing the new threat. The sea of common soldiers seemed to part, revealing the two men.
One was a mountain of muscle and rage, Xu Chu, his simple armor straining, his eyes burning with a dull, focused fire. The other was Zhang He, poised and elegant like a dancer, but with the cold, calculating eyes of a raptor.
A fierce, delighted smirk spread across Lie Fan's face, cutting through the battle grime. "Well, well," he called out, his voice carrying over the localized hush that had fallen around them. "Cao Cao must be sweating in his tower. Sends two of his best hunting dogs just for me? I'm flattered."
Zhang He offered a slight, formal nod, his spear held steady. "The honor of crossing blades with the famed 'God of War' is not one many receive. I intend to learn from it."
Xu Chu merely let out a deep, bullish snort, hefting his hammer. Words were a waste of time.
"Then come," Lie Fan said, his smirk hardening into a battle grin. "The lesson might be shorter than you think."
The duel began not with a roar, but with a deadly, seamless convergence. Xu Chu was the thunder, a straightforward, overwhelming charge, his hammer a blur of devastating power aimed to crush Lie Fan's guard. Zhang He was the lightning, darting, feinting, his spear a flickering extension of his will, seeking openings, testing defenses, aiming for joints and gaps.
For the first time in the assault, Lie Fan was on the defensive. But it was not a panicked defense. It was a flowing, adaptive dance. He used Xu Chu's monstrous strength against him, redirecting hammer blows to slam into the stone parapet, sending chips flying.
He parried Zhang He's probing strikes with sharp, precise clicks of his halberd's shaft, never over committing. He moved between them, using their own presence to limit each other's angles, turning their tandem assault into a complicated puzzle he had to solve with every heartbeat.
It was, as he'd taunted, a tremendous exercise, a strain that burned in his muscles and sharpened his senses to a razor's edge.
From the periphery of his vision, he saw his companions react. Huang Zhong's eyes narrowed, his hand tightening on his blade. Zhang Liao and Taishi Ci began to shift, ready to converge and break the two on one engagement.
They never got the chance.
Like specters summoned by the duel itself, five more figures emerged from the Wei ranks, not as a disorganized mob, but as targeted missiles.
The stern, scarred visage of Xiahou Dun materialized before Zhang Liao, his own sword already held high in challenge. "Your dance is with me, Zhang Wenyuan!" he barked.
The fierce Xiahou Yuan locked eyes with Taishi Ci, his bow slung over his back, twin blades in hand. "They say you're a passionate fighter. Let's see if passion beats discipline!"
The steady, formidable Xu Huang stepped calmly into Huang Zhong's path, his great axe held ready. "Veteran," he said with a nod of respect that did nothing to soften the threat. "Let us see whose experience prevails."
Cao Hong and Cao Ren, moving as one, intercepted the two Yellow Ghost bodyguards. They didn't boast, they simply attacked with the synchronized ruthlessness of lifelong comrades, their goal clear, isolate and contain.
In an instant, the cohesive knot of Hengyuan power was forcibly unraveled. The wide section of the wall became a series of intense, personal battlegrounds.
The common soldiers of both sides instinctively backed away, creating a ring of breathless spectators around six separate, high stakes duels.
The air was filled not with the general roar of battle, but with the distinct, terrifying music of top tier combat, the bone shuddering CLANG of Xu Chu's hammer meeting Lie Fan's halberd, the sharp, rapid CLASH CLICK of Zhang He's spear feints, the heavier, grinding shriek of Xu Huang's axe against Huang Zhong's blade, the flurry of strikes between the others.
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Name: Lie Fan
Title: Founding Emperor Of Hengyuan Dynasty
Age: 35 (202 AD)
Level: 16
Next Level: 462,000
Renown: 2325
Cultivation: Yin Yang Separation (level 9)
SP: 1,121,700
ATTRIBUTE POINTS
STR: 966 (+20)
VIT: 623 (+20)
AGI: 623 (+10)
INT: 667
CHR: 98
WIS: 549
WILL: 432
ATR Points: 0