“In war, it was always the weak, ones unable to defend themselves, who suffered the most. Whether they be farmers whose entire harvests were confiscated in the name of the war effort, leaving them and their families to starve, or unfortunate villagers of a defeated nation, who more often than not become the victim of the typical pillaging and raping many countried allowed their victorious soldiers to do… The most bitter price was always paid by those least capable of affording it.” - Deimosthenes Herodotus, Anti-War Philosopher from the Union of Free Nations, circa 408 FP.

“Grün, you take the second team, sweep one street west of ours,” commanded Reinhardt once the Free Lances reached the city proper. Given the amount of people rushing into the city, he had quickly marked three adjacent streets for his group to handle. “Dacia, take the third team and sweep one east. Hannah will stay airborne and serve as our emergency contact if needed.”

With a grunt of acknowledgement, Grünhildr and Salicia led one-third of the Free Lance towards the street they were assigned to. Dacia did the same, with Ylisera and Nicole beside her, as they moved towards the eastern street.

The street Reinhardt had left for his own group - which included Mischka’s people - was the main street. He chose it not out of greed, but out of more practical consideration, as it would have been… problematic for many of Mischka’s larger people to traverse the narrower alleys of the town.

From time to time, his men ran into sporadic resistance along their way. Thugs and lowlifes, often wearing a few too many jewelry on their person. They were quickly dispatched, before those running behind stopped briefly to strip the valuables off their corpses.

Reinhardt had no idea what possessed many of these men to stand and fight against them. They were clearly far outmatched, yet many went against them as if possessed. He still pondered the issue as he smashed through one man’s cudgel and his shoulder in a single motion, only to find that the man tried to grapple him with his other hand despite his injury.

Even though his mad attempt surprised Reinhardt, it had not shocked him enough to make him falter, as one of his legs kicked hard into the man’s abdomen. He flexed his muscles and allowed his claws to unsheathe, right into the man’s guts. Then he disemboweled the man messily as he tore his leg out, a thread of slimy intestines stuck to one of his claws.

He spotted another thug, a woman, who also tried to keep fighting even after Elfriede opened her throat, and only stopped when she hacked the woman’s head off with both her blades at once. The man he was fighting tried to crawl to him, but expired with bloody froth spilling from his mouth.

“They’re fucking drugged up the gills,” cursed Elfriede as she spat on the face of the dead woman. “These fuckers probably don’t even feel pain anymore, if they even had any coherent mind left after so much drugs.”

“That explained why so many of the houses we passed had their occupants ransacked and killed then,” replied Reinhardt as they pressed onwards, deeper into the city. “They were probably so high they didn't know their friend from foe anymore.”

“Likely. Parts of the city must have resisted them as well. Take a look, to the northwest on the next alley,” said Elfriede in return. When they reached the next alley, Reinhardt saw what she meant. The area clearly had been barricaded crudely, a makeshift one made from stacked furniture and other household items, and seemed to be breached just recently.

“Think there might be survivors in there?” he asked.

“Probably. The barricade seemed to be broken rather recently, probably not long before we arrived,” replied Elfriede as she carefully touched some dying embers on the remnants of the barricade. “Unless the idiots in there were so high they’d reverse the order of their pillage, rape, and burn chances are good there’d still be people alive in there.”

“Have Grün and Dacia lead the rest ahead. We’ll take a short detour here,” said Reinhardt after he pondered for a moment. “See if there’s anyone in there we can ask about things. Save their asses, if possible.”

All the mercenaries behind him nodded as they followed him into the side street. It was one of the larger roads in the city, and behind the barricades lay the dead bodies of many men, both old and young, who died clutching the weapons in their hands.

The first few buildings in the street were already burning hard, but they found human bodies in the next few. Women and their children, who had been abused and then murdered in a cruel manner, their bodies left in their houses to burn down along with the building.

It was in one of the larger buildings - one that by appearance seemed to be a middle-class brothel - where they found survivors. Several women lay dead on the floor, their corpses marked with obvious signs of abuse and in various states of undress.

Further inside, raucous, lewd laughter was heard, and Reinhardt found himself barging right into a group of men who were busy having their way with many of the building’s inhabitants. He had not needed to give the command before Elfriede and Mischka, who were right beside him as he barged into the large room, went to work.

Elfriede had just silently walked past the men, who often found their throats suddenly slit before they realized what happened. Some of the women - and men, as it appeared the brothel kept prostitutes of both genders - screamed underneath them as their assailants slumped over on them while holding their bleeding throats.

Mischka was far less subtle, as she just used her massive paws and slapped heads off their necks, to the terrified screams of the prostitutes being violated. At the end of the line was a man who given his glazed look, unaware of what was happening around him, was clearly drugged to the gills, and busy raping a young girl.

He suddenly found himself held aloft in mid-air as Mischka grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, and with a look of utter disgust on her face, bit off his arms before she spat them out, the did the same with his legs while the man wailed like a pig being butchered alive. Then she dropped the limbless man to the floor right in front of the girl he had violated, and offered one of her hands silently to the girl.

While the girl was apprehensive at first, her eyes, still wet with tears, hardened after a moment, and she took Mischka’s hand as she rose to her feet, her other hand trying to cover her body with the remnants of her torn robe.

Then the girl looked at the limbless, dying man on the floor, and with hatred in her eyes, walked to him. She raised her foot, and stomped down with her heel right at the man’s nether regions, repeatedly, until all that was left was nothing more than a bloody mess of crushed flesh, blood, and urine.