{Empress}
I woke up and saw that everyone was ready to go. I told many of the people that I wasn’t the only one to let out their emotions the night before. I, among others, will be entering the town first. I’ll go with my man in my care. Once again, we will be doing the same strategy. However, we’ll do things a little bit differently now. I will be acting as a guard, and two of our strongest other than me will be placed to assault the southern gate. Shortly after we entered the town, the main attack force will approach and they’ll keep the gate open while we attack. Word came in just before dawn that the rearguard group had encountered a force that was five hundred strong. Our group destroyed them by staging an occupation in the former town and attacking the rear in surprise while setting off fire bomb traps. We weren’t without losses though, as over half our group was killed. We gained valuable mounts, armor, supplies, and even magic5magicstory mechanician’s equipment though.
They’re fleeing to catch up to us from the inevitable reinforcements they will receive. We will use those people in the next raid. Once upon the city, we entered the town and made our way down the streets. I was currently leading a wagon to the slave market. This place had no newts like myself, but there was another group of dragon1dragonspecieskin, the lizkin. They were a weaker generation of bloodkin to myself. They were usually born from those two lesser kin races. They are of a lesser intelligence than a newt, but on average, about equal to the average human. They make up the labor force of most dragon nests. They don’t have a strong build, can’t speak, and have little physical attributes compared to others like them. They are the weakest of the dragon blood kin. There was thirty such beings in a cage. Some were shaking the bars, while others were just laying down until one of them noticed me and alerted the others. The slave merchant then noticed me looking at them, then my man walked toward him.
I got tapped in the arm, then my man pointed at them.
‘Will they obey you?’ (Emperor)
I smiled slightly. Many of them were from different sects, but at least two of them were from mine, including the most fit looking one.
“My master is interested in these lizkin. He seeks a labor force.” (Empress)
The merchant smiled at me wryly.
“He does now. He has a good eye to keep races with similar traits, like you, together.” (Slave Merchant)
I ignored his gaze on my cleavage.
“How much for the lot of them?” (Empress)
The merchant hesitated for a moment.
“Lets see…. Counting upkeep and training. How does sixty sound?” (Slave Merchant)
I looked at my man, then he raised both of his hands from his cloak and showed a two and a five to the slave merchant.
After that, there was serious negotiations. To what purpose this posed was none other than to pass the time until the raid actually began. As soon as they were finished negotiating though, we were told that it will take a few hours to arrange transportation for them. I mentioned to the merchant that we’ll take four of them now to help the load supplies that we’ll buy after we leave. I chose two of them that were from my former sect, and two others from my sect that had good relations with them before their fall. Upon reaching our wagon, I revealed four swords and told them to take them right before the alarms started sounding.
Upon hearing the alarms, we rushed back inside the slave market. My man freed the four of them from their curses6cursesstory mechanic, then gave them chest armor to match their swords. We basically demanded our money back because we didn’t want to risk our investment on another person. The merchant then reluctantly let them go since the slave ownership had been transferred already. It was a rather weak argument actually. When that didn’t work, we were out of time, so I drew my sword and shoved it into the merchants chest, then took his keys. Upon opening the cage, the other lizkin looked at me while surprised, as my man took off his cloak, revealing several smaller blades loosely tied to his body by twine.
“Take a blade and kill any slave master you come across and bring their slaves here.” (Empress)
I couldn’t help but see the emotion my man had on his face as he looked at the now dead merchant, then he reminded me to check the money that we’ve spent so far. I kept the lizkin at the slave market, then I looked for any able bodied slaves to be of use, or any of the market guards trying to stop us.
The surprise from within the town caused the guards to spit. The hundred or so able guards went to the gate themselves. Not one of them was a slave, while the guards that were sent to the market were mostly slaves except for their officers. The near three hundred people weren’t easy to deal with with the less than one hundred newly freed able bodied slaves there. They were in the mindset that they won’t be slaves again. Add to the fact that they were all armed in some way or another, which made them even more dangerous. I left the four lizkin instructions to defend my man as the highest priority. If things don’t go well, then I told them to escape and leave me behind. I then went to the front lines. The streets had already cleared, and only the people that are currently fighting remained. I then charged the guards with my sword in full force, then I pierced through the light mail of two guards with one strike.
I followed the move up with a thrust into the face of another guard, as some of the freed slaves cheered and started to push forward as well. Over the next three hours of fighting, the situation started to become disadvantageous to us. Not only were we tiring faster, but we were also losing men faster as well. It came to the point that we had to barricade ourselves in the slave market. We kept twenty men stationed at the entrance at all times. Fortune was with us though, as there wasn’t enough guards to keep us pinned down unless we desired to be. When they tried to spread their ranks and come at us from a different angle, we punished them for it.
It was sad, but unless my man freed the slaves first, we had to kill them without remorse. When the battle reached the fourth hour, black flames streaked through the sky. One of the lizkin that I left with my man rushed over to me as I was resting and drinking some water.
“Master, Master. It’s the human you told us to watch. Black flames are encroaching all over his body.” (lizkin)
I was shocked after hearing that, then I received another report from the gate.
“The slave guards are free! They’re attacking the human guards and the commander!” (Rebel Beastman)
I have to get control of the situation before another riot in the last town happens.
“Scatter throughout the populous. I would wager that what has just happened is that every slave has just had their slave mark removed. Bring all the newly freed beastkin and other races here. Loot any places that had slaves, but don’t loot any places that didn’t have any.” (Empress)
The monkey beastkin I was speaking to, and the others around me, looked at me puzzled.
“Why must we follow those orders? Who are you to tell us what to do now that we’re free?” (Monkey Beastkin)
I angrily looked at the beastkin. He was just like the one from last night. The lizkin at my side was about to charge the beastkin, but then I stood up straight.
“These are the words of your liberator, so remember them well. What he freed you from he can give back tenfold as well.” (Empress)
I started moving toward the gate, then found that the guards were panting hard. The battle was over.
“Newly freed slaves, my forces are being held at the south gate. Help us out!” (Empress)
Confused, and with no other directions, they fell quickly in line. From that point on, taking the town was easy.
{Narrator}
The second raid of the empire’s first couple was a well documented event. It was the first sign to the kingdoms that will become their lifelong enemies that this was more of a conquering army than a group of bandits. Even the empress admits in her journals that there was much more death of slaves and those not related to them at all in this raid than she liked. Though ruthless, she was also very compassionate. It was unlike the previous town where they spent several days to clean out it’s resources. They had only stayed in the second town until the next morning. Being that the first town had an overall population of about twelve hundred, and the second town was nearing eight thousand, it was clearly evident that with less than four hundred combat warriors, they couldn’t hold onto such a place for long. Even against the populous, they were still holding out. After taking a portion of their food stores and all of the useful resources belonging to the slave owners, they moved on rather quickly.
Another thing unlike the former town’s raid is the fact that some slaves remained even after the emperor released them. These people were much older individuals than the former place. It’s believed that these individuals were either born as slaves, or the slaves accepted their roles and chose to stay with their masters. In such places, it was found that the slave owners were still alive despite the uprisings. They were also relatively left alone, other than the fact they were to care for the other populous of the town during and after their stay. As for the people that didn’t have any connections through the slaves, most of them were relatively left alone. Some even bartered with them instead of pillaging their merchandise. These trends continued for future raids up to the battle of Star City.
