Session 21. (14/12/05)

We rejoin the heroes in the thick of a fight with 11 samurai; three already lie dead on the floor. Five of the remaining eight have been blinded by Katchamaru's (Anthony Hummerston) spell and are at a hopeless disadvantage, but the L4 leader is unhindered and taking chunks out of Kanemitsu. In the first action, Miyoshi (Denzil Brown) wields both his swords and gets a critical hit to his opponent's sword-arm with his katana, the wakizashi scoring also. The disabled samurai defends with sword in his weaker hand and fends off Miyoshi's next double attack, then turns to run but Miyoshi lands two more good hits and finishes him. Yoshi (Anthony Hummerston) is also landing blows-aplenty and in two rounds gets seven out of eight hits to kill first one then a second samurai. Kachamaru doesn't fare so well. A good first blow takes his already injured opponent down to his last hit point, but Kachamaru misses on the next chance and then, even worse, swings, misses, hits a rock and breaks his beloved first-made sword. Still, no time for sentimentality: he casts Stage Sword to conjure up a magical replacement, hits the samurai and kills him. While this is going on, Mineo (Denzil Brown) plods steadily onwards with middle sized hits (in fact he goes the entire fight with no misses in nine attempts). Mineo's opponent falls on the fifth hit. Kanemitsu gets a critical hit against the L4 leader and knocks him down, stunned, then lands three of four effectively free hits against his prone foe to make serious inroads into his health.

Up on the hill, Haku (Paul Burton) is having fun with the samurai and their horses. Having already slowed them down with mud, he uses Tongue of Beasts to call the horses to him. They set off while the samurai look in astonishment at the figure on the hill making horsey sounds. They set off to investigate but Haku casts Mirror of Deception and makes the illusion of five of himself doing various different tasks. The samurai's bewilderment turns to horror as Haku casts Summon Bear and sends two large bears after them. Six of the samurai scatter and head for the hills; just one stays to fight the bears, but they land two-thirds of their attacks while he can't hit them at all and soon only pâté remains. Haku summons a wolf to track the other samurai but they are no further threat, being lost in the hills, chased by bears and wolf and on the wrong side of the army to get through to Hakodate.

Back on the road Miyoshi gets another critical hit plus a hit with his other sword to take almost all the hit points of his next opponent, and follows up with yet another critical hit plus regular hit to take the remainder plus several from his next life. Yoshi likewise finishes his opponent with two critical hits plus regular hits, the last taking 33 damage to leave only mincemeat. With only the L4 leader still standing (he has got up by now), the others watch as Kanemitsu trades miss-hit-hit with him, handing out two and three times as much damage and finally winning the fight.

By now the Ainu army has trampled through the checkpoint, seven bologna slices being the only evidence of any resistance. The army pauses while the scouts regroup, apply bandages and perform healing, then head south towards Hakodate and the mid-afternoon sun.

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