-Link-

Link and his one-hundred rose after resting a short while. They gathered information on the terrain from scouts who Ouki supplied, and so Ganon organized them and created a stratagem. He explained it to Link (multiple times before he understood), and Link accepted it as good.

The strategy was quite simple, but would be difficult in execution. It required each and every man of the one-hundred to think of themselves as a whole unit, as opposed to individuals or as squads. They would make their way westward until they reached the hidden terrain, and then march north. They would pass the ruins of the ancient city on its eastern side, and yet continue north into the Zhao line.

This, naturally, terrified the men. They hid themselves against the rock wall as best they could, but they were openly exposed on the east. None of them lit torches, they covered their weapons, armor, and shields (as little as they had) and covered anything that could reflect the light. They bent their backs and lowered themselves to present less to be seen, and they moved slowly.

No one dared speak for fear the Zhao would hear them. The only sounds they could hear was the crunch of their leather shoes on the wasteland ground, and their own breathing. At periodic times, they would hear a mild gasp, before deathly silence, as Solitare moved above them. Ganon had instructed the Sheikah to assassinate any scouts the Zhao would have along their way. At first there were few, but as they inched their way further and further up the Zhao side, more and more scouts had to be silenced. At one point a scout did see them, reached for his horn to blow, and put it to his lips. Unfortunately for Zhao, he had no breath in which to blow, as Solitare had managed to pierce his windpipe in time, before pushing his body over the edge. The dead Zhao fell before Hei and Tou, and Hei was half-way into a sudden squeal, having not expected the body to land in front of him, when Tou managed to clamp his mouth shut. The miniscule peep Hei did let out caused all of the Qin to freeze in place and listen intently to know if any Zhao were alerted.

If they were to but raise their heads a little, the Zhao marching on Matsubi would have seen them or the Zhao hill on the east where Harken was would see them. The only one of them who dared risk it was the Sheikah, for Solitare was skilled at hiding in plain sight.

Solitare was a master of what would normally be associated with magic tricks and misdirection. Despite his small size, youth, and fragile appearance; or perhaps because of it, he is unusually unnoticeable, a trait that works well with his skill for misdirection. Solitare is capable of vanishing out of thin air with his faints to become near-invisible. He is further trained by the Sheikah to be unusually calm, decreasing his already low presence to near invisibility in its own right.

However there is a weakness. Solitare's skill requires a constant focus and perception of large scale surroundings, taxing his mental strength, and his stamina is low. The more tired he is, the harder it is to be hidden in plain sight. In addition, the more he uses misdirection tricks on someone, the less likely they will be misdirected each time, and they will inevitably become used to him. This is something that can be seen in Ganon and Link already, as they are slowly starting to notice him without him purposefully going out of his way to be noticed.

Before this battle, Ganon and Link had pushed Solitare to telling them these things. He was their trump card to getting all the way behind Zhao lines and back, and though Solitare would not tell them the training of the Sheikah in depth, he at the very least relented in telling them how they could best utilize him and he explained in more detail what his talents were.

Link's unit reached a point from where they were between the Zhao hills. On the east were soldiers and scouts so thick they could go no further. However, on the west, it was devoid of Zhao but the scant scouts that remained. All the Zhao had marched into battle with Matsubi.

Link popped his head out of the bushes briefly before disappearing again. "I can see the Zhao command from here. The tents are up there with the flags erect and high, and some men remain."

"Did you see the general?" They wondered.

"Don't know what he looks like. Couldn't tell from here. Solitare?"

"My tricks won't work from this range; but I can get a little closer; close enough to see if the general is present. He would have bodyguards and given respect by special salutes. He would be sending out orders."

Ganon said, "Then go, but be careful. The Zhao have emptied the hill but we may not have long."

Solitare disappeared into the brushes. It would be some time, comparable to an hours' time, before he returned. "The general is there. He wears a helmet with many coloured feathers on his crest and steel armour. He sits in a seat overlooking the battlefield, and a number of flag bearers and horn blowers surround him. He uses them to wave patterns in the air to give orders at times when the horn is blown."

"Then we should strike now, while our good fortune remains." Ganon said. He stepped out from the crevice from which they hid and stealthily made his way a bit closer to the hill. Before long they would reach open clearing and would have to race up the hill. He stopped at a rock and turned to see only Link had followed.

"What's the deal guys!" Link whispered.

"Some are scared." Kyo Gai reported.

The one in question who held them back was a large man. He was one of the four strongest amongst the hundred, with such strength no weapon could suit him but a mace or hammer. He would not budge. The hundred grew fearful when even such a large man didn't budge to go until none of them would go.

"Hey, you have a daughter right?" Link asked.

The man nodded. "Lili." He smiled brightly. It was easy to see he loved his little girl.

"How old is she?"

"Three."

Seeing where Link was going, Kyo Gai stepped in and said to the man, "Do you not remember why Zhao is here? They are not here to conquer. They are here to kill. Already entire villages have been laid to waste. Many of us here have sons and daughters as well. Wives and mothers and fathers and brothers and sister as well. Isn't that right?" Kyo looked among them.

Indeed, this was true. Ganon had adopted Malon as his ward, though it was more formal than a normal adoption. Hei and Tou were brothers who went to war together, but had people they had gone to protect. Link had none of these relationships, but wanted to protect his village all the same, and his friends. And among the others of the hundred nearly all had someone they did not want to see die to Zhao, sons and daughters and wives and mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters and cousins.

"There is no shortage of lives that depend on us!" Kyo Gai pressed. "We are a hundred, so we very well may die. I'm scared too. But we were conscripted to fight to defend the kingdom. I don't know about you, but I don't want my mother to die. So I'm going with or without you, but it will be better if you all come."

His words stirred the men and focused them once more, so that they did follow when they inched their way in closer to the hill; and a profound change came over the large man whose daughter was Lili. (His name is Den Yuu for future reference.) The thought of his baby girl dead stirred him from despair into rage and further into bloodlust, so that while the rest hid, he stood openly and ran forward. Seeing him run openly onto the hill's slopes, the rest did the same and charged up the hill.

The horn blew as they ran, and the men at the Zhao command mobilized to protect the hilltop; however there were but a scant few. There was only a token force remaining here, as all of the other forces were either fighting Matsubi or further down the hill to the south and was out of reach.

Link looked to the south. There was large units of Zhao far down the hill. These Zhao were stationed to protect the hill from an attack from the south. The Zhao would never have guessed Ouki would aim an arrow at them from between their own command units in the far back. They never would have guessed an attack would come from the east.

"The units to the south heard the horn! They are coming!" Link yelled.

"We better hurry." Ganon unsheathed his blades and picked up speed further.

A few arrows hit true and struck Qin, but the arrows were few and the time they had to mobilize was short. In seconds the wolf, Kagami, was upon them. The wolf leaped on them, tackled them to the ground, and tore at their throats. The men dropped their bows to unsheathe their spears and swords to deal with the wolf, and in so doing could not fire on the Qin who were close behind. The Zhao had mobilized a set of barricades all around the command. It was easy for the wolf to weave through, but the men would have a much harder time to scramble through the wooden constructs.

However, they did not have to work their way through it. Den Yuu had been built up into a frenzy, and he lifted up his hammer and in one strike crushed the barricade before him into rubble. The other strong men in the hundred were twice as strong as a normal man, but he was even stronger. He was twice as strong as these strong men, so he was four times as strong as a normal man. The barricades crumbled beneath his barbaric strength. The other strong men also bashed their weapons on the barricades around them that blocked their path, and Ganon slammed his blades onto them as well while drawing on the power of the triangle. The hundred cut down the barricades, poured into the circle of tents, and attacked.

As instructed, the men had reorganized into different squads of five. The strongest men formed their own unit with Den Yuu, Ryuu Sen, Chu Tetsu, and San Ka. (Though not a full squad, their raw strength was specialized, and to add a weaker man to the squad would lessen the squads purpose.) Link's squad had the same as before, and Kyo Gai was promoted to have his own squad. So Den Yuu's unit struck into the thickest mass of the defenders with Kyo Gai and his squad, and all the other squads, while Link's squad was instructed in Ganon's strategy to penetrate through and go for the head of the general.

Penetrating was easy for them. Ganon brought his swords down on the Zhao and fire exploded out from them. Solitare disappeared and reappeared behind their lines a moment later with a dozen men's heads falling. Link cut and struck and pressed forward, and Tou and Hei supported him. It did not take long before the five had pushed through the Zhao's final line to reach the general. The general proved to be a weak warrior who was cut down instantly and beheaded.

The general of Zhao in question was not a skilled duelist or warrior, but was a strategist. In his final moments he saw he had been defeated soundly in his own area of expertise by the mind of Ouki. He had been unable to perceive that Ouki was not a general who left each battlefield to their own devices, but had them influence the other and seek every available opportunity. Ouki had predicted Zhao's move and responded with both a shield and an arrow. The shield was Matsubi and the Royal Guard, so chosen for that role before the battle had started. And the arrow was Link, a small unit that Ouki hoped had the potential to be something more.

They cut down the remaining Zhao around the general, sparing only the few who had not been armed and were scribes or servants and slaves. They kicked the flag of Zhao down, plucked it from its stand along with the horn. They put the general's head and helmet into a sack.

They then stole the nearby horses, released the ones they could not steal, and fled further west before the infantry unit of Zhao would catch them. Link's unit spent the day riding a wide swath around the battlefield from west to south to avoid conflict with Zhao, before returning to Ouki's command the next morning their prize in hand.

The Zhao of the west would flee, scattered and without proper orders any longer. They were routed and there was a great slaughter before they fled and regrouped at the middle command.