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The guandao went against the sword leaving countless cracks; until after the third strike, the sword finally gave out and shattered to a thousand pieces.
“Die!” Guan Yu roar as he gazed downward with blood thirsty eyes.
From behind him, Zhang appeared and jumped to the air while plunging his halberd downward at Guan Yu’s back. But before the halberd could reach him, Guan Yu turned around and smacked it to the side.
“Unhonorable coward! To attack me from behind!”
“Hmph the winner is king and the loser is put into the history books as the bad guy. So when I win you will be recorded in the history books as the coward!” Zhang laughed, landing in front of Guan Yu after performing a backflip to create some distance between the two of them.
But right after when Zhang landed, a blade came slashing towards him. Luckily, Zhang was able to slightly move his head to the side and he was wearing his helmet as he tried to dodge the blade. An ear splitting sound could be heard as the blade collided with Zhang’s helmet and scraped against it.
“Damn…” Zhang cursed as he fell while his helmet was knocked off and landed close to him on the ground.
When looking up, he could see Wei Yan going in for the kill. Wei Yan lifted his voulge in the air and used both of his hands to plunge downward, towards Zhang’s abdomen. As the voulge pierced downward, a chained dagger shot out from Zhang’s hand and lodged itself into a tree. Using the tree as an anchor, Zhang pulled on the chain thus allowing him to avoid Wei Yan’s attack.
“I’ll kill you and offer your head as a sacrifice for Lord Lu Gong!” Guan Yu bellowed as he swung his guandao down at Zhang, who had just avoided Wei Yan’s attack. But just before Guan Yu’s blade was about to sever, Zhang had another chained dagger shot out from his hand and pulled him away.
Using the two chains in his hands, Zhang was able to avoid certain death. After escaping his one way trip to meet again his future father-in-law, Zhang jumped up from the ground and landed on his feet.
“Your petty tricks won’t save you for long.” Wei Yan yelled as he stood beside Guan Yu.
“Damn hypocrites! You're going to avenge Lu Gong by killing me? Ha what kind of joke is that!” Zhang mocked as he stored away his halberd into his interspatial ring and withdrew the Slaughterer blade and a Lightning Eater Scale shield.
With his shield and sword in hand Zhang jumped into the air where his ten Dragon Talon throwing knives appeared and shot downward. The knives cut through the air so fast that a bloodcurdling screech could be heard.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
One small crater after another was formed when the knives impacted the ground, causing a curtain of dust surrounded the area around them. As the dust picked up, Guan Yu and Wei Yan lost all vision on Zhang as he faded in behind the curtain of dust.
While using the dust to hide himself, Zhang landed on the ground and performed a roll then lunged for Wei Yan with his sword.
Clang! The sound of metal hitting metal could be heard as Zhang’s sword collided with Wei Yan’s double sided voulge.
“Ha you think a bit of dust can hide you from me?” Wei Yan snickered as he began an onslaught of attacks on Zhang. As if the voulge was a part of himself, Wei Yan wielded it extremely agilely.
Without allowing Zhang even a moment's breathe, the sound of a blade slashing through the air could be heard coming from behind him. Behind the curtain of dust, Guan Yu appeared and swept his guandao at Zhang’s back mercilessly.
But with a spinning motion Zhang was able to avoid both Wei Yan and Guan Yu’s attacks. After Zhang was gone Wei Yan voulge collided with Guan Yu’s guandao, causing sparks to fly about. Using this opportunity, Zhang dashed toward where his mount was.
“Aurora swine you think we will just let you run after you assassinated our lord!?” Guan Yu bellowed as he began pursuing Zhang on foot. Hundreds if not, thousands of soldiers followed behind Guan Yu as he rushed forward slewing Zhang’s men.
While Zhang retreated with his soldiers, Guan Yu and Wei Yan continued pursuing them. Until, suddenly, the rumbling of thousands of hooves pounding against the dirt road could be heard.
“Charge!!!” Yuying could be seen yelling to the soldiers behind her.
“Reinforcements have arrived! Reform formations behind the cavalry! All the cavalry surround the enemy!!” Zhang commanded as pulled the reins of his mount to turn back facing the enemy.
Moments later, Guan Yu’s army was surrounded by the thousands of galloping horses.
A few of green armored soldiers, after hearing Zhang’s words, began wavering and looked down at the weapons in their hands.
“For Lord Lu Gong! Vengeance or death!” Guan Yu’s soldiers roared as they raised their swords into the air.
“What are you fools talking about!? We were not the ones who killed Lord Lu Gong it was the soldiers of the Heavenly Sword Province who did! In fact, we are here to avenge him ourselves. We did not come for your riches, land or women!” Zhang refuted. Although he wanted two of the three things there was no way he would admit this at a time like this.
“Hmph! A mere letter? You’re telling me you did not witness lord Lu Gong’s death personally? You have not seen the flags of the Heavenly Sword Province being hung above the walls of Green Clover city!?” Zhang snickered with disdain in his eyes.
“Men retreat! We’ll leave these fools here to realize their idiocracy.” Zhang said as he pulled the reigns of his steed and galloped toward where Yuying, Ai and Ling were.
As the soldiers of Aurora fell back, Guan Yu and his men were left in a daze. They could not believe what was happening, moments ago they were ready to fight to death; but now the enemy was falling back and there was a chance that the enemy they had been fighting was not even an enemy to begin with. If Zhang’s words were true, then they were being used.
While moving back to their camp, Yuying and Zhang could be seen talking amongst themselves.
“More harm will be done to the enemy if we let them return alive.”