The Werean and the Dwarf took positions near Anna as she curled up as tight as could be without harming her young child.

“Never thought I would end my musical career alongside a Dwarf!” The Werean remarked in his thick Australian-like accent as he hefted his War Lute, a lute made of heavy and durable materials that was just as useful as a musical instrument as a bludgeoning implement, into a ready position.

“Well, how about a friend?” The Dwarf jokingly retorted in the same thick accent as the Werean as he held his Hunting Horn, ready to blow and/ or swing if the need arose.

The Werean looked down at the Dwarf and smiled.

“I suppose that works too.”

The two got ready for the inevitable clash that would happen after the Red Mountain Bandits destroyed the eleven knights remaining alive in the road, the one who had suffered a lethal headshot still lying on the dirt warmed by the burning town.

As the Red Mountain Bandits advanced, they quickly dispatched the Trelawney Knights. During the short battle, the knights were outraged that they were getting ganged up on by roughly ten bandits apiece. Shouts of, “Have you no honor?!” and “How can you not respect the practice of honorable one-on-one duels?! This noble knight demands you all wait your turn to die!” made up the bulk of the hypocritical nonsense that was spouted by the sadistic monsters that made up the armored shock troops of the Trelawney Kingdom.

Such words were often mostly just ignored, but occasionally were responded to with joking remarks such as, “Well, well, well! The pot is calling the kettle ‘black’!” or “I could ask you the same, Mr. Fancy-pants! Where was your so-called ‘knightly honor’ a few moments ago, eh?”

Needless to say, in a match between one heavily armored knight and at least ten bandits who were more than ready to sink to any low needed to win, the victor should be obvious. There may have been eleven knights, but the Red Mountain Bandits outnumbered them at least ten to one. This was to say nothing of the Red Mountain forces operating in other parts of the town, dealing with the knights in those places.

However, there was not a moment to rest even after the knights were slain.

“Hey, you lot.”

One of the Bandits addressed the three (arguably four) people before his group.

“It isn’t safe in here. Take the road out of town behind us and you will reach shelter. That is, unless you either want to follow these clowns to an early grave by doing something stupid or you want to help us deal with these knights and the fire. I really wouldn’t recommend staying put, though. A knight may come by after we move on or the smoke and heat might get to you.”

The bandits then split into two groups and flanked around the three stunned people and the little baby before reforming behind them and moving onwards deeper into the city. The Werean and the Dwarf were still in their battle stance, but eventually realized they were not in harm’s way anymore. At least not from anything Humanoid.

“Well, that happened…” The Dwarf said in his heavy Australian-like accent.

“Yeah. Hey, maybe we should take their advice? I personally wouldn’t want to be stuck out in this heat unless I was cooking something on the barby, and Well-Done Werean Steak is something I would rather not be on a vulture’s menu.”

The Werean helped Anna to her feet and the three ran out of the town together.

“Well, maybe not all non-Humans are bad…” Anna thought to herself as they escaped the flaming hell that was her birthplace.

…

A group of thirty knights were surrounded in the town square. When the Red Mountain Bandits came to add their chaotic anarchy to the party, everyone assumed it would become a three-way battle for survival and victory. Much to the surprise of the surviving militia and the knights, the Red Mountain Bandits had sided with the militia and turned the tide irrevocably in their favor. It wasn’t strange that the addition of a few hundred well-trained and well-equipped bandits could turn the tide so heavily against the knights. No, not in the slightest bit strange at all.

…

This was beyond outrageous. They came here to bring justice to the wicked and have fun while doing it. They even set the town ablaze to prove their point.

But now the settlement was having its flames doused by mages. MAGES! The knights could not believe that there were mages willing to do work for such a monstrous and evil crime syndicate! And that there were HUMANS among the Bandits was even more shocking.

“Can’t you people see?! We Humans should be working together to destroy the non-Humans, not aid them! Humanity is the Master Race! It says so in the Holy Testament!”

One of the knights, their leader, tried to reason with the mob surrounding him and his knights, but was met with mocking laughter.

“Have you read the ‘Holy Testament’ yourself?”

The words from one of the bandits called him out.

“No! Of course not! Only the priests are allowed to read it!”

“Then how do you know they are telling the truth?”

The knight leader momentarily faltered. It was a valid point. Since only the priesthood were allowed to read the Holy Testament, then they could say anything they liked. They were human, after all, and…

WAIT A MINUTE!

“I see what you are doing, Race Traitor! Trying to get me to denounce the One Faith, let alone attempting to make me question it is a crime punishable by death!”

More mocking laughter came from the bandits.

“And what isn’t punishable by death here? All you have to do is make shit up and it’s ‘off with your head’! Seriously, this is why I left Trelawney in the first place…”

He had LEFT the Kingdom of God?!

“So, you are not just a Race Traitor but also a defector from the nation chosen by the One God?! You should die a thousand deaths for your heresy!”

Before either he or his comrades could act, sense of disgust and morbid sickness washed over them as though something so grotesque that its very existence corrupted reality had entered the area.

“You are using the wrong word.”

A voice that seemed to be the combined result of innumerable inhuman sounds came from the mob, which parted and revealed a humanoid monstrosity clad in white robes and a mask. Every inch of its body was covered, so that not even the slightest bit of skin or the smallest hair could be seen. Even the holes where its eyes peered out from behind the mask were covered in a glass-like lens that obscured the sight of what were surely absurdly grotesque peepers.

“The word you should use to describe their lack of belief is apostacy. Heresy is the worshipping of the same God or Gods, but in a different and forbidden way. Apostacy is the worshipping of different Gods or the general abandonment of a once-held faith. Likewise, you cannot use either to describe someone who left your nation for another. The term used would be ‘Expatriate’, as in that person is a Trelawney Kingdom Expatriate.”

“Please, shut up!” the knights nearly shouted as one, “Don’t talk! Be silent and keep your hideous form away from us!”

The white robed figure shrugged and sighted and withdrew a folding chair from some kind of unseen Magic Bag. Unfolding it and placing it on the ground, the figure sat and held up one of its hands with all four its fingers and its thumb all outstretched.

“Five.”

It folded one of its fingers.

“Four.”

What? Was it counting?

“Three.”

What was it counting down to?!

“Two.”

Was it going to remove its robe and mask and devour them all like the monstrosity it was?!

“One.”

“Dear God, give us strength to-!”

“Impact.”

At the precise moment the robed figure said that final word, some kind of humanoid creature smashed into the ground before the knights. Dust and debris flew everywhere, and the ground trembled at the force of the landing. The new being rose to its feet and stared daggers at the 30 knights. At its side were two handaxes and two one-handed folding repeating crossbows.

“You do know that kind of landing is terrible for your legs and especially your knees, Nora?”

Nora? Where had the knight leader heard that name before?

The woman brushed her hair out of her face and sneered at the knights.

“The New Tyrant of Red Mountain has arrived.”

It was at that precise moment when the knights truly realized that they were royally fucked.