For a few minutes, they had the situation they wanted – a disjointed Kikori line, which gave them room to use their long swords. They took a dreadful toll on the defenders. Then the second rank joined in, using their javelins to stab at long range, moving forward as a unit to fill the gaps in the front rank. Horace came charging down the line from his vantage point, his sword swinging and thrusting into the Senshi, his shield deflecting their katana. His speed, and the power of his sword strokes, took Arisaka's men by surprise and they began to fall back before his one-man assault. Seeing this, Horace bellowed to his Kikori.
'Advance! Advance! Issho-ni! Issho-ni!'
The Bear Goju, discipline and formation restored, began to tramp steadily forward, crowding the enemy, buffeting them, shoving and stabbing. But even in retreat, the Senshi's katana were taking a toll of the advancing goju's ranks.
On the right flank, Selethen's Hawks were faring a little better. There had been two rams aimed at Selethen's formation and they were some metres behind the rams attacking Horace's section of the line. Selethen was able to order the doorway tactic when the first ram came forward. The Kikori peeled aside, letting the ram blunder through, while Selethen's men stabbed at them with javelins and short swords. Then the line closed again to face the following Senshi.
The second ram never made it to the Hawks' front line. Four of its six bearers were struck down by a salvo of black-shafted arrows. Halt, standing with Shigeru on a raised vantage point thirty metres to the rear, nodded in satisfaction as he saw the result of his shooting. The remaining two bearers, unable to control the heavy log by themselves, allowed it to fall to the ground. It bounced and rolled, knocking over four of the Senshi who were planning to follow it into the enemy's ranks.
Seizing on their confusion, Selethen echoed Horace's order.
'Forward! Issho-ni!'
The Kikori, their fighting blood roused, took up the chant as they moved forward like a tide.
'Issho-ni! Issho-ni!'
They slammed into the Senshi and the slaughter began. But, like the Senshi facing Horace's men, these warriors knew better than to allow the Kikori to get too close. They gave ground, all the while stabbing into the gaps and over the tops of the shields. Men died on both sides, although the close quarter fighting suited the Kikori better. Selethen, like Horace, patrolled the line, dashing in where necessary to lend support with his flashing curved blade, using his small hand shield to deflect the thrusts and cuts of the katana.
He glanced across at Horace's goju and saw that his men were moving ahead of Horace's, opening a dangerous gap. Instantly, he shouted an order.
'Hawks! Halt! Withdraw! Withdraw ten paces!'
Moving as one, the Hawk front line disengaged from the Senshi and moved backwards. As they had trained to do, the second rank seized the shoulders of men in the front rank. They turned to face the direction of the withdrawal, guiding the steps of the front rank so their comrades never had to turn away from the enemy. The goju simply moved backwards, formation still intact, any gaps in the shield wall closed by men from the second rank.
Selethen gauged the distance to the Senshi force and glanced back to the Shark Goju behind his men. He signalled their commander and the man turned and bellowed a series of orders.
Arisaka's men, their view obscured by the enemy directly in front of them, had no warning of the shower of javelins from the Shark Goju as they hurtled down over the heads of the Hawks. Senshi went down all along the line as the heavy weapons struck home. Selethen, seeing that the rams were all out of action, signalled for another volley and watched as great gaps were punched in the Senshi line.
A Senshi commander screamed an order and his men, never knowing when a third volley might arrive, turned and ran clear of the killing ground.
Horace now saw that his men were advancing too far ahead of the Hawk formation. He too called a halt and the two front lines faced each other. The Senshi weren't about to try another frontal assault that would take them within range of those stabbing swords. But now a group of fifty Senshi warriors detached from the main force and began to try to work their way through the wooden obstructions they could see on the enemy's left flank. They shoved and cut their way through the star-shaped hedgehogs, gradually forcing a path through them. Then several of them were pulled up short by the hooks in the tangle of light rope that covered the ground at knee height.
None of them paid any attention to the horn blast that came from the raised ground where Halt stood watching. And very few of them saw the lightly armed group of young men rise from the cover of the rocks on their right.
Mikeru looked to the distant figure in the grey and green cloak. He saw Halt raise his hand slowly, twice, then point to the rear. The young Kikori nodded, understanding, and issued his orders to his thirty dartmen.
'Two darts,' he said. 'Then retreat.' Each man carried eight darts in a leather tube on his back. Halt was obviously aiming to conserve their weapons as far as possible.
'Ready!' Mikeru called. He looked down the line of throwers, saw they were all prepared, and called the executive order.
'Throw!'
The iron-tipped darts, whipped on their way by the taut throwing cords, made a distinctive whistling sound as they flew. Some of the men struggling among the hedgehogs heard it and looked up, curious to know what it was. Then the thirty darts smashed into them and there were screams and cries as they fell, their armour ruptured by the iron tips. Before they could recover, another flight of darts savaged them.
Fifteen of their number were left hanging awkwardly, draped over the hedgehogs. Eleven of the survivors made it through the tangle of obstructions and found themselves facing Moka's fifty warriors, who were eager to strike a blow for their Emperor. There was a brief, uneven battle. None of the attackers survived. Seeing the result, the remainder of the flanking force withdrew.
Across the field, the same thing was happening. Arisaka's men, thwarted in their attempt to force a way through the shield wall, were drawing back to take stock of the situation. They left a lot of their comrades on the field of battle but they were by no means beaten.
And they had taken their toll of the Kikori. Knowing what to expect, the Senshi hadn't attacked blindly as they had done before. They were more disciplined in their approach and knew when to withdraw.
Now, by mutual consent, the two forces backed off and faced each other, each assessing the damage they had done, the losses they had suffered. Halt looked up as Will approached. He saw that his former apprentice's quiver was half empty. Obviously, Will had accounted for some of Arisaka's men as well.
'How's it looking?' Halt said.
The younger Ranger shook his head. 'It's not great. We've lost over twenty men. And there's another ten wounded.'
Halt whistled slowly. That was a third of the men who had been engaged in the two leading gojus. 'Can we stand another attack?'
Will thought about the question before he answered.
'I'd say so. Arisaka lost nearly two hundred men in that attack. We've got two gojus intact and ready to fight. They're fresh troops. I'll push them forward to replace the Hawks and the Bears.
'In addition, we've got Mikeru's dartmen. They did a great job. Plus we've got fifty Senshi ourselves.
'I think we can handle whatever Arisaka throws at us – so long as those reinforcements don't turn up.'
The moment he said the words, he regretted them. The superstitious thought occurred to him that by mentioning the possibility, he might make it a reality. Then he shrugged the thought aside. Things didn't work that way, he told himself.
Across the field, from Arisaka's army, he heard a sudden burst of cheering. He looked up.
'What have they got to cheer about?' he asked.
Halt pointed grimly to a file of men, just visible in the south-west corner of the plain.
'It's Yamada,' he said. 'He's arrived.'
Stony faced, Will watched the new arrivals approaching from the south-west. They marched in a large, irregular gaggle and the weak midmorning sun glinted off their weapons and armour. At least three hundred of them, he thought.
Halt's voice snapped him out of his grim reverie. 'You'd better get moving if you're going to reorganise your troops,' he said. 'Or do you plan to surrender?'
Will shook himself angrily and ran down from the slightly elevated spot where Halt and Shigeru stood. He sent a detail to recover as many of the javelins as possible, and ordered the Wolves and Sharks forward into the front line, replacing the two badly depleted gojus who had borne the brunt of the fighting so far. Horace and Selethen would command the two new gojus in the front line. The three friends had a hurried consultation.
'They won't have any rams this time,' Will said, 'so I guess it's business as usual. Use your javelins. Two volleys each, no need to save them for stabbing. And close with them as soon as you can. Our men did well when they got in close – and the Senshi don't like it.'
His two commanders nodded. Horace glanced to where Shigeru stood, in full ceremonial armour.
'Any chance you can convince Shigeru to get away?' he said, lowering his voice.
Will shook his head. 'Halt tried. He'll stand by his men, win or lose.'
'I always thought he would,' Selethen said quietly. All of the foreigners had come to respect the strength of character and the quiet dignity of the Emperor.
'In that case, we'll just have to win,' Horace said. But the very fact that he'd asked the question showed that he didn't believe that was possible now. They all knew their best chance had been to smash Arisaka's force before Yamada's men arrived. That opportunity was gone.
They could hear the irregular tramp of feet and rattle of equipment from Yamada's force as it drew closer. In a few minutes, they'd be fighting for their lives again.