[LBD&A] Chapter 47: The Madness II – Seizing Power in South Ward

This chapter is credited to Conner Young. He was so sweet as to raise funds for orphan’s home. This is the least I could do for him. 

This chapter is inspired by the movie, Kung Fu Hustle. It is a superb action comedy.

You can watch this movie for free in youtube here: https://youtu.be/e1EqOoolIPQ

Although there is some fighting screen in many wuxia and xianjia novels, it is very rare for words to capture the excitement of a fight. Most of the fight goes on in the reader’s imagination. This is the first real fighting scene where Fruits and Veggies tried to describe the fight. Hope you find it as exciting as he intended.  

 

 

 

 

 

Inside General Wang’s tent, 20 captains immediately entered the tent.

 

They kneeled respectfully before General Wang.

 

“There is no need to kneel! Quick! Stand up and report what you know about the treachery of Concubine Xu!” General Wang was in a fluster, and stepped forwards to hold the men up.

 

“Concubine Xu has staged a coup d’etat, and took control of the palace. As soon as we received the news, we immediately come to report the issue to you!” said a captain.

 

“What! How could this have happened?” General Wang was deep in thoughts and did not notice the looks on the faces of the captains.

 

Suddenly his eyes widen in surprise as he felt a tremendous pain in his chest. Blood began to seep out of his wound. He looked down and was surprised to see a sabre emerging from his chest. One of the captains had stabbed him in the back! As blood flow out of his mouth, he turned and glared at the captain. “Why….??”

 

“You always get in my way of making money. As a captain, I was only paid several silvers a month. The amount of money that Concubine Xu gave me in a month is a lot more than what I made in a year. Of course I would sell my life to her.” Replied the smug captain. “Don’t bother to resist, the blade is poisoned. Even if you can survive the wound, without the antidote, you will be doomed. “

 

The next moment, General Wang smashed a fist against the betrayer. The betrayer was over-confident. Although that attack had seriously injured General Wang, he is after all a master level fighter. A single sabre wound would not be enough to finish him off.

 

The fist sent the betrayer flying several feet into the air, and he landed heavily onto the ground. A few of his teeth was missing, and he was spitting blood. But still he got up.

 

“What a great General indeed! Even with the poison affecting you, you can still strike such a powerful blow.”

 

General Wang turned pale. The poison was very deadly and rapidly corrodes his insides. Even his chi was unable to suppress the poison. He spat out some black coloured blood.

 

Seeing this, the general’s right-hand man immediately shouted. “What are the rest of you captains doing? Quickly arrest him!”

 

Three of captains stepped forwards, only to be stabbed in the back by their colleagues. Eight of the captains also lurched a surprise attack on the general’s right-hand men, while the rest attacked General Wang.

 

General Wang could barely exert any Chi to protect himself or his men. The surprise attack was too sudden, and he was already severely injured and poison. He could only watch in horror as his men were cut down, and then all the captains turned on him.

 

Although he is a much stronger warrior than a single captain, he was surrounded by all sides, and attacked by 17 men at once. Each captain is at least an expert level. Even worse, all their weapons were poisoned with a very rapidly acting poison. Even a small cut would result in more poison spreading through his body. What is worse is that he is currently unharmed. His mighty spear that was about three meters away never seemed so far out of his reach as it was currently.

 

With a bellow, he sent two men flying with swings of his fists. But he was cut and stabbed by four to five sabres for each blow he lashed out. Even worse, his fists seemed to lack power as the poison rapidly coursed through his body. He could feel himself getting weaker and weaker, and his blows have less and less effect. His vision seemed to be swim and become blurry.

 

Finally, he could hold on no more, and succumbed to his wounds. As he fell, there were tears in his eyes as he breathe his last “I am sorry, my Lord. I was useless. Concubine Xu had already bribed so many of my subordinates, and I did not even know…”

 

“Pui! This old man still had some fight in him.” Cursed a captain as he spat out a tooth and some blood. Some of his teeth had been knocked loose by the General’s fist, and a bruise begins to form on his arms that he used to block a blow.

 

“Doesn’t matter! He is dead now. Clean up this tent. Also, take his head and his token and offer them to Concubine Xu.”, smiled a captain. “Tomorrow we will be well rewarded.”

 

The captains smiled, and began to clean up the commander tent, and pick up the general’s token. There are two general tokens in the South Ward. Each general’s token will allow the movement 5,000 of the South Ward’s troops.

 

One of the captains mercilessly beheaded the corpse.

 

They immediately passed the head and token to a trusted messenger: “Pass this package to Concubine Xu without delay.”

 

=== In General Lee’s camp ==

 

The massive, burly General Lee strode into his comfortable den and threw his shield to the ground, startling a few insects that fled into the cracks on the ground. His heavy, rusted armour was stained with blood, and he talked to himself in barely contained excitement.

 

The day had been his. For months now, he had tried to capture the bandits lurking in the South Ward, but he had no luck. The alleyways and secret passage created a trap-filled maze that repulsed all his attempts to take it on. The spies that he sent to infiltrate the bandit hideout always end up dead a few days later. But just a moment ago, there was a massive explosion in the bandit camp that send the bandits crawling out their holes.

 

Just now, he had personally led his troops to join in the slaughter of any bandits they found. He was feeling very pleased with himself. At last, the blight of the South Ward has been cleared.

 

As he basked in the glory of his perfectly executed victory, a shadow separated itself from the ceiling, dropping silently behind him. It melds once again into the gloom. General Lee’s face seemed twitched, and he turned his head suspiciously towards the darkness. His eyes widen in surprise as a demon face mask stared back at him from within the darkness.

 

In a blur of movement, the black-cladded figure leapt towards the general, dragging the shadows behind it like a cloak of darkness. Dark bladed claws, bounded to the assassin’s hands, slashed viciously through the air. General Lee threw himself backwards to avoid the blow that would have sliced open his belly. Glaring at the assassin contemptuously, General Lee drew his trusty sword, and bared his bloodlust.

 

His body and face wrapped in black cloth except for the demon mask, the assassin stepped forward slowly, each step perfectly balanced and silent. The darkness seemed to coil around him like a living creature, and General Lee’s head begin to spin as he watched his deadly foe.

 

General Lee shook his head to clear the mysterious effect of the demon mask, and with a snarl, he lunged forwards, his massive sword descending towards the head of the assassin. The blow was swatted aside, and the assassin launched a lightning-quick counter attack that scratched three lines of blood across General Lee’s face, barely missing his eye.
The assassin stepped back, and from the eyes of the demon masks, it seemed that the assassin was satisfied as the demon mask break into a cruel grin. General Lee felt his face beginning to go numb and fear coursed through him. He could feel the poison pumping through his veins and arteries in his body, working its ways towards his heart. His vision began to swim.

 

With desperate strength, General Lee lurched towards the assassin. The assassin dropped into a crouch, his poisonous claws waving menacingly before him. General Lee started a series of swift attacks, but each attack was parried and turned aside harmlessly by the assassin who moved with superhuman speed and finesse.

 

Then in the last assault, the assassin managed to catch the General’s sword between the claws of one of his hands and snapped it into two with a palm of his other hand.

 

But General Lee is a master level fighter who was not going to fall that easily. He took the opportunity to step in close to the figure cloaked in darkness, and he struck upwards with the hint of his sword. A sharp crack resounded as the blow struck the assassin’s jaw below his demon mask. The assassin reeled backwards from the impact.

 

General Lee, sensing an opportunity, pulled a long dagger from its sheath and swiftly closed in on the stunned figure.

 

But the assassin recovered much quicker than anticipated. It swayed to a side, and the slash of the short sword passed scant inches from his neck. Lashing out swiftly, the assassin caught General Lee’s blade arm in an exposed area of General Lee’s armour as it passed, ripping through bone and flesh with the poisonous claws.

 

A squeal of pain erupted from General Lee’s throat as a searing pain ripped through his mangled arm. His blade dropped lifelessly to the floor as he let it go and retreated in pain.

 

The assassin’s face seemed to break into a cruel sneer as he stepped forwards while swiping his claws upwards towards the exposed flesh. A shriek of pain followed by a spray of blood and a missing arm illustrated the outcome. The sharp claws easily carved apart flesh and bone as it tore off General Lee’s arm.

 

Mad with pain, General Lee latched his remaining good arm into the assassin’s scrawny neck, and his gauntlets threaten to break apart the trachea as it blocked the windpipe. The assassin turned pale and struggled fanatically, as it tried to break free of the iron grip. Its claws could not penetrate the thick gauntlets.

 

With his massive strength, General Lee lifted the assassin clean off the floor, and choke-slammed the assassin to the ground. The assassin’s neck seemed to turn in a weird angle, as from the impact and it was stunned. The next moment, a heavy foot stomped on the assassin’s head while he was prone. The force of the foot smashed apart the demon mask and broke the nose and face bone of the assassin. With the destruction of the demon mask, the shadows that cloaked the assassin in the darkness seemed to disappear rapidly.

 

Again and again General Lee stomped on the assassin’s head mercilessly with his foot, until the head was smashed into meat paste and General Lee slipped on the blood and remains of the brain. As he fell, he could not help laughing aloud. It was a glorious battle, and he had triumphed over his mighty foe.

 

“Fools… Concubine Xu did not think that I, the great General Lee, could be taken down so easily, does she?” laughed General Lee.

 

The General stiffened suddenly, his eyes widening in disbelief. Blood rose from his throat in a gurgling froth. A second assassin wrenched his dark, serrated blade from the General’s neck. The blood on the assassin dagger was mixed with the foul, acidic, blackish liquid seeping from the blade and dripped hissing onto the floor. Where each drop of the poison landed, it turned the surrounding green and lush grasses around it into withered yellow grasses as it corrodes everything around it.

 

The heavily armoured General Lee fell. Staring blinding at the dark ceiling, General Lee lay on his back, his body twitching uncontrollably as his body went into a series of convulsions. The assassin proceeded to search his body for his general’s token.

 

The last thing General Lee saw was the scene of the second assassin taking a blade and chopping towards his neck. Then all was dark.
Having retrieved what he had come for, the assassin set fire to the first assassin’s corpse. It would not do if others learned that dark guild’s men were involved. Then it drew back into the shadows once more. For a brief moment, from the darkness, a demon mask could be seen glowing malevolently, before it too, vanished from sight.

 

=== In the dark guild ===

 

“Really? Concubine Xu has succeeded against the odds?” The Dark Lord looked pleased. “Is the South Duke dead?”

 

“No, the South Duke was in the biggest brothel in the East Ward. The problem is that he is guarded by 500 men from the East Duke.”

 

“Fools! If the South Duke is not dead, then all she had done is for naught. The City Lord would not take this coup lying down!” The Dark Lord seemed to explode in fury.

 

“Quick, notify our men in the West Ward and North Ward to send some soldiers to surround the City Lord West and North Gate. With some men there, the City Lord will feel pressurized and will not send out too many troops to quell this rebellion. They are not to engage, but to buy time only. Also have our men in the North Ward camp near the East Ward. This will hopefully pressurize the troops in the East Ward, and it would mean fewer men to defend the South Duke.”

 

“Meanwhile, have our dark assassins support Concubine Xu and try to assassinate the South Duke. Ask Concubine Xu to send some troops to the City Lord gate and the East Ward gate. These will create some pressure on the two lords. We can only buy her two hours. Any more than that and our efforts would be for naught.”

 

The assassin nodded, and faded back into the shadows.

 

The Dark Lord smiled as he say. “Winners become king while losers become paupers. Whether we will seize more power depends on the outcome of this battle. If we win, this city would be as good as ours!”

 

The sound of diabolical laughter echoes throughout the room.

 

Manners Please

 

 

Please remember to thank our sponsors Connor Young for sponsoring this chapter.

Fruits and Veggies want to say a gigantic thank you!

 

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