Tetsuya the Deliverer

When Lady Mikage moved to take over Yakai, she was not unopposed. One of the greatest thorns in her side was Tetsuya the Deliverer. When he saw the massacres and destruction Mikage wrought, he set all his mind and skill on thwarting her. Unbelievably quick-witted and a preternatural improviser, Tetsuya was believed to have some magical capacity to read minds, or ply the skeins of fate to determine the future, he was so skilled in pre-empting his foes’ movements and adapting to the ebb and flow of battle. At first his forces were limited to a few hundred fighters operating from caves. He settled on ambush tactics – he knew the farms and forests and villages and was well aware of the richest settlements and most passable routes to them, all vital information for a guerrilla campaign. He made a point of having his warriors kill enemy scouts, which were always where Tetsuya expected them to be: taking side paths, ignoring areas of dense foliage in which his killers could take cover. With these outriders gone, the eyes and ears of larger hosts were put out and sliced off, and so the armies were vulnerable. Tetsuya proceeded to mercilessly harry them, attacking Mikage columns close to the end of a day’s march, when they were most tired, and stalking baggage trains to best weaken enemy morale. Tetsuya’s forces grew over time. They rescued conscripts bound in chains, many of whom voluntarily joined them out of gratitude and hatred for Mikage. Some Dawnlanders sought out Tetsuya’s bands to join them. Tetsuya found this brought a new problem. People seeking him out left trails. Trails easily exploited by the more cunning of Lady Mikage’s servants. Several of his fighter-bands were destroyed when well-meaning peasants led Demonspawn straight to them. Tetsuya soon saw this for the opportunity it was, and saw to it that many Mikage raiding forces met a bloody end the moment they expected to achieve a murderous victory after being lured into a killing field. The Mikage forces’ only defense was to move in large numbers. This meant they no longer had the ability to reach scores of villages simultaneously, were forced to keep to major roads, and were easily discovered – their targets could be warned well in advance of any attack, and Tetsuya could concentrate more of his strength against them. Furthermore, it gave Tetsuya’s forces much greater freedom of movement and thankful allies willing to shelter and supply them in all directions. It was at this time that Tetsuya became known as the Deliverer. So many believed he would save all Yakai from this attempted takeover by the forces of Siroth. He was adored by his soldiers. He was affable, fair-minded, and committed more than anyone to a cause they all shared, and they had complete faith in his ability to overcome any tactical problem and seize any strategic opportunity. It was all to end, however. Lady Mikage herself came to deal with Tetsuya after consolidating her gains elsewhere in Yakai, at the head of a huge army some four times the size of his own. She marched directly into Tetsuya’s heartlands, burning villages and slaughtering the inhabitants. If the Deliverer wished to protect his people, open battle was his only option. It was fought in full view of Mount Kosetsu, and raged for three days and nights over field and in forest. It was bloody and merciless and hateful. Tetsuya was a coiled whip to Mikage’s hammer. He struck, withdrew, and struck again, squeezing every advantage out of every inch of elevation or square yard of space. The Lady pummeled and pummeled and pummeled. The dead piled in droves. Though the Deliverer’s army dealt many more losses than they suffered, they were defeated. Handfuls of survivors scattered to the winds. But the Deliverer refused to retreat. He fought and fought, hacking down foe after foe, his loyal bodyguards and captains around him. When the Arbiter came only six of his companions remained. She took all their souls into Shards. The Arbiter released these seven from their Shards several times to aid the Shadowkin Rebellion. Each time Tetsuya fought himself bloody to assuage himself of the guilt of defeat and survival. But he never succeeded. Not during the hard-won victory at the Battle of Blossom Trees where blood fell like petals. Not during the daring raid on the Kyofu Coast to liberate the Mikage-enslaved fishing crews there. Not even at the final siege at Kumoshiro, when the Rebellion was won and Mikage defeated, did Tetsuya’s torture fully end. When he requested he be returned to his Shard, his six companions saw how exhausted he was. How dark his eyes were. How much life had been drained from him. They could not know if he would ever recover.