"Oh heck," was Rei's response, stringing her bow quickly.
"Hey, now this is something I can deal with," realized Ranma as he slapped an arrow to the side. His eyes narrowed as he focussed on the ostrich-man who was attacking.
Concerns about how to deal with recent events were tabled. He had a fight to take care of.
There were several people in this scenario who didn't remember a past life, but had more or less fitted into the world without a ripple. Some had changed very little, some had changed so much that only the basic appearance and name were the same.
Holy Harmonia's mercenaries were not Citizens, they strove so that they and their families might eventually make it to Citizen Second Class as opposed to Citizen Third Class. Hikusaak "The Absolute One" used the power and immortality granted by the Circle Rune to rule over the empire for almost five hundred years. Though there were rumors of his death, and a shift in power to various counselors and aristocrats. The two major factions were the Temple Faction (which placed power in the name of the priests and the status quo), and the People's Faction (which sought to remove the sub-human stigmata applied to the nonhuman races like kobolds) though both factions were played by the priests behind the scenes. There was even the Howling Voice Guild, an assassin group, which was used as a wildcard in the political manueverings.
Still, even a pack of mercenaries required someone of the aristocracy to guide them to the true path. The commander of such a group had to be strong, skilled, and unswervingly loyal. His name was Tatekai Kunos, and he was a master of the bastard sword. He was blonde of hair and blue of eye, typical of the Citizens First Class, of the Temple Faction, and a coldly calculating intellect. That he otherwise resembled Tatewaki Kuno was not known to him or any of his soldiers, nor would he care if he knew. All that mattered to him was Holy Harmonia and its continued glory.
"Sir, there is a problem with some of the new slaves," said an aide.
"If they fail to be proper slaves, we have no use for them," said Tatekai. "Kill them and leave their bodies for the crows. We'll pen the survivors together at the next village until the wagons can be modified."
"As you command, sir," said the aide.
"You'll have to get over that squeamishness," said Tatekai. "They are cattle, no more than that. We can sell off the less desirable ones later. I understand that one of your officers has some pull with certain barbarian tribes that lie homeward."
"That is so, and if we deal with the tribes there we can be assured of less trouble during our passage back," said the aide.
"Ferrying the spoils of war back to glorious Harmonia should be as trouble free as possible," said Tatekai, a faint note of approval that his reasoning had been followed.
Ranma finished hitting the ostrich-man, and turned to the next - only to see the pitcher plant deflating under enough arrows to give it a "hairy" look.
"That was rough," said Ranma, summing up the battle. Not that the ostrich-men were particularly tough, but they had been fairly numerous. Neither he nor Rei had escaped getting wounded.
(Posted Wed, 28 Feb 2007 07:38)
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