For the next hour or so, Haru's men gradually "lost" ground, allowing Kayuu's forces to push them farther and farther away from Sishui Pass. Though there were many attempts by the force to split up and flank them, Kan'u and Chouhi's units eventually moved in and made an allied front against the rest of Kayuu's men, forcing the fight to stay mostly head on.
Eventually, though, Kayuu herself managed to reach the front lines. Haru himself saw her right as Cerberus came to a stop from a speedy gallop that had allowed him to cut through another swath of enemy soldiers. To his surprise, Kayuu was a tall, fierce woman, slim but well-muscled. She had short silver hair and narrow, piercing amber eyes. She wore a purple, silver-trimmed halter top with pink straps connecting the top to the band around her neck, and a purple dress marked with a butterfly on the right side and trimmed with fur at the bottom. Gloves that matched the dress covered her upper forearms and down to her wrist. Her white, pointed-toe shoes crunched against the dirt, and the pink tassels of the ribbon at the nape of her neck trailed behind her as she leveled her weapon—an axe-headed polearm, a bardiche—and stared at Haru.
"So, you're the Messenger of Heaven?" she asked. "You don't seem all that impressive to me."
"Those soldiers of yours that I cut up say otherwise, Kayuu," Haru replied. He took a brief look over her head, and saw that the army was at just the right distance from Sishui and that yet more men were coming out of the fortress. Almost time to go, he thought. I'd better deal with this Kayuu first, though.
With a grunt, Haru dismounted Cerberus and patted the horse's flank with his left hand. Understanding immediately, Cerberus stepped back a few paces, giving Haru all the space he needed to fight. Kayuu smirked, and adjusted her bardiche slightly, shifting her hands so that her right was at the silver-scaled bottom third of the shaft, and her left was gripping the mahogany middle part of the shaft. "Ready to die?" she asked.
Haru scowled. "Hell no."
With a loud cry, Kayuu rushed forward, swinging her bardiche downward. Haru swung Blood-Scythe in response, knocking her weapon back, then rushed in with a punch that caught her straight in the jaw. She held firm, and stayed standing, but had to roll out of the way when Haru followed up by shoving Blood-Scythe forward in a vicious jab at her feet. As Haru pulled the massive sword upward, Kayuu shook the stars out of her face, and went back in with a vicious barrage of overhead swings. Haru blocked and parried them with as much speed as he could manage, then shoved his shoulder into her chest, knocking her over. However, Kayuu wasn't that easily discouraged, and broke her fall with a quick roll to the side before getting back to her feet once more. Haru closed the distance with a quick step and swung Blood-Scythe at her stomach, aiming to cut her at the waist. Kayuu responded by using the butt of her bardiche to knock Blood-Scythe out of the way before jabbing Haru in the sternum with it. When he staggered back from the sudden jolt, Kayuu whirled her bardiche overhead and slashed down with it, cutting Haru's right shoulder open.
Despite the wound, Haru did little more than hiss and step back. Kayuu let out a harsh bark of laughter. "What's the matter? Can't take a little scratch, you puffed up wimp? Come on, you're supposed to be the man that suppressed the Turbans and brought half of Youzhou under your heel! You can't be that pathetic."
Shortly after that, the sound of a horn echoed through the ravine, and Haru gripped Blood-Scythe even harder, then rushed Kayuu with a loud roar. Gotta keep her distracted! As long as she can't make it back to Sishui… as long as I defeat her here...!
Kayuu's grin matched his snarl, and she ran forward as well. "That's more like it!"
"I do believe that's our cue," Sousou remarked. She put down her telescope and turned to Kakouton. "Shunran. Go and take command of the other unit so that Shuuran doesn't have to manage it alone. Keifa, you're with me."
Kakouton bowed and left, while Jun'iku sidled closer to Sousou's horse. Sousou smiled as she patted Jun'iku's head absently; she had seen Haru and Kayuu's flags relatively close together, so she could only imagine that they were actually fighting now. Oh, to be a bird above that battlefield. But we have to worry about conquering the fortress. Hulao Pass will be my chance to judge him for myself.
Sonken sighed as the horn sounded, and turned to Shuuyu. "Give the men their marching orders. Hakugen, go with Koukin. Kouha, Ryomou, stay with me."
Shuuyu and Rikuson nodded, and walked away. Kannei and Ryomou came to Sonken's side, and together, they began to move forward, followed by Sonken's personal squad. "I'll be glad to see the end of this," Kannei said quietly. "Waiting is tedious."
Sonken allowed herself a slight nod. "I agree."
A few minutes after the horn sounded, Kan'u, leading the charge at the head of her unit, slashed down another enemy, then turned around to see the flags of Gi and Go approaching from behind at a rapid speed, and behind them, Kousonsan and the other members of the alliance. With a tight grimace, she glanced over at a nearby soldier. "We need to make a pathway for the rest of the alliance to attack Sishui! Prepare to split the forces!"
The soldier nodded, and raised the horn at his side to his lips, blowing a specific pattern that only the Zhuo soldiers would recognize. Kan'u took a brief moment to look over to Kayuu's flag flying in front of Haru's, and did her best to stop her heart from pounding in her chest. "I believe in you, my lord," she whispered. "Please, don't die."
If Haru could have heard Kan'u, he probably would have cringed.
The fact of the matter was that Kayuu was good. Very good. They'd been trading blows back and forth for a good while now, and while Haru hadn't taken another slash to the chest, Kayuu had been bludgeoning him with the butt of her bardiche every chance she'd got, coupled with a few light slashes at his legs. She'd cut his pants and the legs beneath a few times, but nothing heavy; unlike his old jacket, though, it'd be easy to get pants in the same style made later back at Xizang. To his credit, Kayuu's jaw was bruising where Haru had punched her earlier, and though he hadn't hit her after his shoulder-check, her movement was slower and more cautious than it had been before.
However, Kayuu's attention was entirely on him, and not at all on the rest of the battle. Any of her men nearby that could have told her about what was going on were either in a fight, or dead. Haru, though, knew from the sound of the horns that had just blared overhead that the rest of the alliance was moving in. Injuries aside, his off-the-cuff plan had succeeded so far; all that was left was to take his first shot to finish Kayuu off. And while he wasn't really sandbagging against her, exactly, he honestly didn't want to kill her if he didn't have to.
Kayuu shifted to the left slightly, then darted forward again, swinging her bardiche low to cut at Haru's feet. Haru's response was to jump up and forward, then slash downward with Blood-Scythe. He easily cleared Kayuu's attack, but his counterattack was met by one of the silver bracers around her wrists; she'd taken one hand off her weapon to block him, but if he had put more force into the strike it likely would have cut right through it.
Both fighters retreated, and regarded each other warily; then, Kayuu's brows drew together and a look of scornful anger crossed her face. "I won't let you look down on me," Kayuu muttered. "You're holding back!"
Haru rolled his shoulders and turned the right side of his body toward her, but didn't answer, simply narrowing his eyes. Taking his silence as admission, Kayuu roared angrily and charged straight at Haru once again. When she swung her bardiche down, Haru blocked it, then kicked at her leg with as much force as he could muster. The steel plating of his boot smashed into her limb with a painful thwack, and Kayuu squawked in indignation and agony as she fell down to the ground. Without hesitation, Haru spun Blood-Scythe back into a reverse grip and thrust it down at her prone form.
However, despite all appearances, he did not aim at her head, but at the ground next to it. Blood-Scythe crunched as its tip sunk into the dirt, and Haru himself let out an annoyed sigh.
"What the hell are you doing, you bastard?" Kayuu whispered.
"Your leg's already too screwed up for you to keep fighting," he said. "Far as I'm concerned, I've beaten you. That, and right about now, the rest of the alliance should be kicking down the door at Sishui Pass. We're done here."
Kayuu snarled and rolled into a crouching position. From there, she attempted to stand, but stumbled the moment that she tried to put weight on her injured leg. Gritting her teeth, she smacked her bardiche into the ground and forced herself all the way up. Haru pulled Blood-Scythe loose with ease, and watched her stare hatefully at him. "I'm not going to lose to you," she said, her voice still quiet and low. "I don't care if your alliance makes it to the goddamn gate or not. I refuse to lose to you, and I refuse to let you look down on me like that! I'll kill you and throw your head at that bitch Kan'u myself!" Then, despite the tears of pain welling up in her eyes, she took a step forward, swinging her bardiche in a horizontal arc meant to lop Haru's head off. "Die!"
She was so blinded by fury and agony that she didn't realize that she'd given Haru a prime opportunity to attack her, but the attack itself was slow and cumbersome. It was easy for him to step forward and to the side, and from there, punch her directly in the chest with his left hand, harder than before.
Kayuu choked as she felt bones break under his fist, and her hands twitched open, dropping her bardiche mid-swing. She stared at him with her eyes set in a hateful glare, but could do little more than collapse to her knees, then fall over as the white-hot pain raced out from her injured sternum. Haru stared down at her dispassionately for a moment, then sighed. "Shit. I still don't like to fight women. I'm gonna catch hell for this later." He bent down and slung Kayuu over his right shoulder, then switched Blood-Scythe to his other hand. Though his cut from earlier was still stinging a bit, it was slowly starting to seal itself shut thanks to his regeneration. He looked around, and sure enough, what few groups were still fighting around him had stopped altogether, just in time to see his resounding victory over Kayuu.
Without acknowledging looked over to her flag, which had been planted into the ground next to a dead soldier. His was still flying high, but it too was no longer moving, and had likely been planted into the ground. Quietly, he walked over to it, stepping around the dead bodies, and sliced it in half with Blood-Scythe. Then, he cleared his throat, and raised his voice. "Kayuu has been defeated by Haru of Zhuo! Give up or run away, I don't give a shit, but either way, you'll die if you keep fighting! So what's it gonna be?"
Two hours later, Sishui Pass fell completely to the anti-Toutaku Alliance, as word spread of Kayuu's defeat and her forces fell into gradual disarray.
Within another three, the anti-Toutaku Alliance was marching on Hulao Pass.