Half of a day wasted waiting.

Half of a day spent spectating.

Half of a day the coalition forces spent futilely hammering at that steel door with ram and man and magic, all while spells and arrows were flung back at them.

Half of a day Blood River spent pacing around his tent, increasingly agitated at the inability of the coalition forces to make progress. How were they supposed to deal with the Dragon's Den when they couldn't even defeat a damned door?

Five could only watch on in silence as her lover dug a track around the tent with his incessant movement. She could feel the same impatience herself, but in this battle, her role was only supportive.

River chewed his lip as he considered the ramifications of this failure. Was it just an oversight in intelligence? Was someone inside the coalition sabotaging it from within? Worst thought of all, were they simply that vastly outmatched by their opponents?

"Mister Black?" He called upon his ghostly mentor.

"Yes, my young friend?" The spectral tutor replied.

"That gate. Do you think that I could--? That ability--?" River's agitation pulsed through his mental link with his teacher.

"So eager to give your new toy a try?" Mister Black sighed. "I don't see why not, but it means you will need to engage before your fight with Brave Dragon. Going into battle with him with anything less than your maximum blood vitality is dangerous."

"I understand, Mister Black." River nodded. "I'll go speak with One, then."

River took a deep breath and withdrew from that inner dialogue, turning back to the tent and to Five. He walked over to her and grabbed her hand.

"Dear, is everything all right?" she asked with concern furrowing her brow, clasping his hand back.

"No, but it will be. I think it's about time to end this stalemate. Let's go talk to your grandpa." Before even waiting for a response, their hands still clasped, he pulled her along as he headed towards the central pavilion where One and the other leaders of the coalition were.

"Sir," he greeted One, nodding.

"River, my boy, what brings you here?" One looked surprised to see the young man.

"Are we going to break in there today, or is there a reason for this delay?" River didn't bother expending the effort to pad the rebuke inherent in that question.

One sighed. "We may need to step back and acquire something more potent to get that door open--"

"We can't." River replied sharply. "The moment you turn your back on the Den is the moment everybody in this coalition is doomed, and that's even if you can get them all back together again like this. I can offer an alternative."

"There's an entire army out there trying to break open that door, what's the difference of one more person pounding on it?" One responded with exasperation before taking a breath to calm himself. "My boy, I know you're impatient to see Brave Dragon fall, but so are the rest of us..."

River shook his head. "So then even you doubt my ability. I need to demonstrate to the coalition why I am given the position in this assault that I have." River took a breath, "Well, had."

"So you're giving up if I don't let you do this?" One spoke carefully with the awareness of a man walking a razor-thin wire like a tightrope.

"No," River disagreed, "but if I do this I will have to head in with the vanguard. My techniques need fueling with more than mere essence, Mister One, and I can't afford to meet Brave Dragon without replenishment."

One sighed and chewed his lip while he considered it. "Fine. I'll allow it. If you can get that door opened, then we'll proceed, and you'll just need to stick with the middle line until we near the central palace. Otherwise..." One shrugged.

River put a hand on One's shoulder. "Don't worry," he reassured the old man who looked more aged than ever, "this is something I can handle. I am, however, going to need everybody banging on that door to get out of the way. I'm proving myself to the clans by doing this, I don't want to start off by mowing down their frontline soldiers."

"Very well," One nodded in agreement. "How soon can this happen?"

"As soon as possible," River replied.

"The day's almost out so perhaps tomorrow morning--"

"Why not right away?" River interjected. "The bandits won't be expecting a breakthrough this late and the confusion as it turns to night can play in our favor."

"Okay." One agreed. "You have a quarter of an hour, then.

"I'll be there," River turned and grabbed Five's hand and left the pavilion without another word, returning to their tent.

"Is this going to all be okay, River?" Five asked, the concern lining her brow.

"Celia, dear, of course it will be." River smiled. "You just need to stay back here and watch as we win this. We'll have this over before midnight; then we can celebrate together."

Five clutched her hands over her abdomen, thoughtful. "Okay. I'll be waiting then, love." She tiptoed up to him and planted a kiss on his lips. The two lingered there for a moment before splitting, Five to the tent's interior and River to the campaign's front.

By the time he got there, the sun was about to touch the horizon. As One had promised, the men had withdrawn from the gate, although there was some audible grumbling among their leaders about it. River walked over to where One and a couple other Dragonslayers were waiting.

"We're ready when you are, my boy," One greeted him.

River nodded. "Then it's my turn, I guess."

He left the coalition leaders behind and walked through the ranks of men to the very front of the line. The assembled warriors were a strange mix, many of the skin-clad kind he was accustomed to standing side by side with men dressed much like he had been before he had encountered Mister Black. He made a silent vow to himself to ensure those men didn't get pushed back into the background once their usefulness here was over.

Standing in front of the entire army, the first rays of sunset accentuating the redness of his hair, his eyes, and his outfit, he faced the steel door at a range still too distant for the Den's archers to hit him. He then closed his eyes.

In his mind's eye, the familiar black hole of Passion Sublimation was still there, pulsing. It hadn't grown since he had stopped using the technique, but it remained there, a source of strength that he could draw upon in need by burning it with Passion Amplification.

He now did that, also unleashing his Blood Reservoirs and channeling all the available essence in his plexus and meridians. As he opened his eyes, he could hear a hushed gasp from behind him.

Standing between the two armies, River trembled with power and fury as his pores extruded thousands upon thousands of droplets of blood. The liquid congealed together into larger globules and floated over his head, constructing an enormous jagged projectile formed entirely of blood.

Embracing all his fury for the Dragon's Den, letting it course through him and outside him, the air around him crackled with the power being injected into that one sanguine stalactite hovering above his head.

"Blood Spear," he chanted hoarsely, "Loose!"

The grisly projectile shot forward faster than the eye could follow, slamming into the steel gates with an enormous detonation. The entire area shook with the force of the impact, and with a screech of torn metal, the gate collapsed.

For a moment, there was silence as both forces stared at the scene in disbelief, shock, and even horror. Then a cheer rose from inside the ranks of the coalition as the front line charged forward.

"DEATH TO THE DEN!" the warriors screamed as they rushed past River and towards the breached gateway.

River himself almost felt like collapsing at the same time as the gateway did, but held himself steady even as he narrowly avoided being enthusiastically and accidentally trampled underfoot by the advancing force. Using Passion Amplification backed with the black hole was mentally exhausting in itself, not to mention the drainage of his reserves of blood essence. He gasped for breath a few times before righting himself and charging forward with the rest of the force.

After he passed through the gate, River soon realized that if he remained together as part of the force, he would never replenish enough blood essence. He accelerated, darting between the men as he made his way up to the front of the fighting.

The front was a hellish scene. The boosted morale of the coalition's men, coupled with the surprise of the sudden reversal, had gotten them inside the fortress with a minimum of casualties, but the disparity between the forces was now making itself manifest. The Dragon Den's men had better physique tempering and equipment, and even though they were outnumbered, they severely outclassed most of their opponents.

River opened his Mind's Eye and shot into the crowd, identifying the most potent experts there as his targets. Most of these were at the sixth-grade Human Realm or above. Latching onto one after the other, he drained them dry of all their blood, replenishing his stores while creating a gap for the coalition to continue to press the assault. In the clash between men, he did manage to get quite a few wounds, but his rapidly replenishing vitality kicked in and healed him, erasing them without so much as a scar left behind.

The foes became increasingly difficult for him to handle, though, as more experts arrived on the scene. River wove in and out of Blood Acceleration, hurled Blood Arrows, and even momentarily confused the less alert foes with Dusk Aura Concealment. He unbottled his emotions and reached a new height of strength with Passion Amplification, and between his rage, the light of the setting sun, and the blood of foe and ally staining all around, the world was dyed in red for him.

It wasn't enough, though. The ranks of top-level Human Realm experts seemed bottomless, and several Meridian Circulation experts arrived to bolster the ranks and mow down coalition warriors three and four at a time. River was having a difficult time advancing any further despite the casualties he was inflicting, despite having an army at his back that was pushing with all its might. It just wasn't enough.

Leaving his berserk haze, he looked around and noticed he was now in a courtyard, almost to the steps of the central palace of the Dragon's Den. He was so close! And yet, right now, not only were the doors of the palace as distant as the vanishing sun but the strength arrayed against him was beyond his prior estimation. He was no longer replenishing vitality faster than he was expending it in his regeneration and attacks.

"Mister Black," he pleaded desperately, "what do I do now?"

--------

Outside the fortress, standing outside of the tents of the coalition army, Five was watching the entire battle from afar. Her combat prowess was mediocre, but her natural ability to see and detect and discern was better than ever before. She caressed her abdomen with a hand as she scryed the carnage, and a trickle of blood from her lip bitten in anxiety ran down her chin to drop on that hand.

River had to make it out of this. He absolutely had to. She found herself deeply regretting keeping her counsel to herself until now, but it was only now that she was confident of the truth.

The two of them would soon enough become three.