While Beatrix was wrapped up in a magical cocoon, that tiny young Gnomish woman was running for her life. Her clothing was ragged and she was carrying the golden egg in her arms like a football, as a dozen swordsmen in heavy armor were chasing a few dozen meters behind her.

“Get back here you shitty slave!”

“Where the fuck do you think you’re going, you ugly little whore?!”

“When I catch you, I’m gonna fuck your ass so hard you’ll be… Well, you’ll be dead, ‘cause I’m gonna kill your first!”

“That’s fucking gross dude.”

“Yeah, necrophilia is evil. If you want to rape her, then she needs to be alive.”

“Just make sure you kill the bitch afterwards!”

The rain had put out most of the fires, but the city was still in pretty bad shape. The only reason that they even noticed the little Gnome, was because of the golden cocoon she was carrying.

Linda had tears in her eyes and she was screaming in terror, trying to tune out the horrible things that those people were saying. No, she was also terrified at all the charred corpses and ruined buildings everywhere she turned.

Her ‘Master’ had told her to head south, but it’s not like she actually had a map or understood directions in the first place! Thus, she was just running around randomly and eventually ended up in a wide-open marketplace.

Of course, the goods that were normally sold in this particular bazaar weren’t food or trinkets, but Humans, Dwarves and Gnomes!

When Linda arrived at that chaotic scene she saw thousands of people in rags and chains, fighting against heavily armored knights. The guards were outnumbered three-to-one, but their equipment and training was far superior to the slaves. Not to mention that there were many children and even infants hiding near the center of the crowd.

“What the fuck is this bullshit?!”

“No! She’s getting away!”

She weaved through the crowd and quickly made it into the centermost area, which was actually relatively empty. Most people were struggling to push out into the various other directions, so people avoided the very middle. Thus, in the dark and ominous night, her glowing yellow cocoon was easily visible to the merchants who were standing on the stages around the square.

“What is that, a giant golden egg?!”

“It must be worth a fortune!”

“Jeffrey! Hurry and grab that for me!”

“Anthony, I’ll grant you your freedom if you can bring me that egg!”

Many of the greedy merchants were ordering their most trusted bodyguards or most loyal slaves to charge into the chaos and steal the golden cocoon from the helpless Gnome woman. However, at that moment, something happened which was more devastating to Norfolk Castle than the fire which burned down nearly the entire Slave District…

That golden egg started to crack apart and blinding light poured out, totally illuminating the whole slave market square. When it faded, the little Gnomish girl was gone and in her place, was an enormous monstrosity.

“Oh my Goddess!”

“What is that thing?!”

“Run! It’s a demon!”

“Ah! It’s looking at us?!”

The ‘monster’ was a relatively small, pitch-black light tank. The cannon was covered in a rather large hollow armor along most of the barrel, but the very end of it appeared like the ported barrel of a large-caliber sniper rifle. There were many ‘eyes’ on its head, different types of cameras, which could easily see everyone and everything that was happening all around the vehicle. Aside from the main, enormous turret, there were also two large guns on the top of the beast’s head, much like demonic horns in the perspective of the men and women who surrounded it on all sides.

“We can’t run! Damn it! First we’re enslaved, now the Goddess is cursing us with death!”

A random woman who was holding a baby nearby, was crying out in fury as she kneeled down on the ground in front of the tank’s treads. She had given up on life and would rather be killed by the unknown creature, than to be captured by the slavers again.

However, although the main gun was essentially pointing at her body, the fifty-caliber triple-barreled gatling turret swiftly turned towards one of the stages in the distance. With a loud ‘buzzing’ noise, it appeared as if there was a blinding dragon’s breath firing out of it’s ‘mouth’.

The weapon only activated for three seconds, but fifty tracer rounds lit up the dozens of merchants and bodyguards who had been standing there to watch the ‘show’. It didn’t matter if they were wearing armor or silk, their torsos, heads, shoulders, arms, legs, were totally defenseless. Anything that was touched by those beams of light was obliterated.

“Agh~! My arm~!”

“H-help me~!”

“Demon~! Dem-agh~!”

“My leg~!”

Only half of them instantly died, but the others were still gravely wounded or rapidly bleeding to death. Of course, when the turret on the left turned towards one of the other stages, all of the merchants and bodyguards immediately tried to escape. However, there was a single flash of light and a moment later, the entire stage was blasted apart. A plume of smoke, dust and red mist covered the area.

“Gah~!”

“My eye~!”

“I can’t feel my legs~!”

Everyone who was on the stage had been transformed into meat paste and chunks of bone, but shrapnel from the explosion blasted into the backs of those soldiers who were fighting against the slaves. A tall dark-skinned man with a collar around his neck may have lost his eye as well, but for the most part, the casualties were almost entirely on the side of the city guards.

However, the carnage didn’t end there. Both of those turrets swiveled around at the same time, aiming at the other two stages and opening fire. It was at that point, when the slaves finally realized something important…

“The Demon is on our side!”

“Thank you Great Goddess!”

“Hurry! We need to clear the way for our Goddess’ Divine Envoy!”

“That’s right! We need to clear away these fucking Northlander bastards!”

Thus, the morale of the slaves rose to unprecedented heights! Well, there were five thousand of them and only around nine hundred of the city guards left. After all, they weren’t part of the Giant-Hunting Battalions and they definitely weren’t willing to fight against a strange ‘fire-breathing’ monster. In the end, at least a thousand of the guards retreated, leaving only those nine-hundred who were on the frontlines to fend for themselves.

It was only a matter of time before the southern side of the encirclement was broken through. Then a whole mob of men, women and children started marching down the main street of the Slave District, carrying halberds, short-swords and daggers that they stole from the dead guards.

That pitch-black tank was slowly following in their wake, firing off bursts of fifty-caliber bullets or forty-millimeter high-explosive grenades every now and then. None of the guards who were still alive, dared to follow after that monstrosity. As for the main cannon, it always faced directly forward, as if it was locked in place.

*Author’s Note*

Many of you probably recognize Beatrix from “Hardcore Legacies”, but she’s also a main character in “Immortal Soul”. Back in “The Sniper“, she was a lot ‘younger’ in a sense. She lived for nearly a century in “Hardcore Legacies”, but she obviously spent some time somewhere else as well. Thus far, she’s one of the main characters in TDD. If I remember correctly, Henry is one of the other characters that gets a decent amount of first person perspective chapter parts.

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