() The Salanders gathered in the streets were very numerous, and many of them, led by their leaders, continued to attack us.

We pushed hard through the streets, covering ourselves with our shields in front, and the Salanders were all around us, constantly throwing stones and even improvised javelins. But when we forced these Salanders to the market square, our officers ordered the formation to be lifted. The Valan soldiers went in groups of twelve to attack the Salanders.

When we cut into the ranks of the Salanders, the Salanders were like snakes that had been cut into several pieces. The courage of the mob always precedes the shedding of blood, and as soon as the first Salanders fell to the ground, a large number of Salanders threw away their sticks and knives and fled into the alleys in a hurry. But in some places, those Salanders seemed to have experience in serving and formed formations to resist the Valans. After being besieged, the Salanders seem to have rebelled even more. A few Valan soldiers who had advanced too far were surrounded by the outnumbered Salanders and lost their lives in an instant.

A rock hit my helmet and made my head buzz. The man next to me was annoyed and called me a bastard because I was too short to hold up a shield that didn't protect him, and I needed him to take care of me. Our squad brought more than twenty Salanders close to a warehouse, and these Salanders held up the gate, and several Salanders fled to the roof, throwing heavy wooden furniture and sundries from it. We stood in dense blocks in the alleys, and almost every time a Salander threw debris, we were hit.

Creelian buildings were built almost entirely of rammed earth and masonry, were very sturdy, and had no yards. Those cross-shaped windows open on the wall, and can only be shed from the inside out. After these Salanders climbed to the top, there was almost no danger to anyone. Our two Valan axemen let us dodge, their muscles bulging, shining in the light of the fire. They began to chop down the gates, sawdust flew and the Salanders on the roof let out a cry of despair. Attack those two axemen like crazy. But it still can't avoid the door collapsing.

The Salanders, blocked in the doorway, fled up the stairs and pulled the ladder away.

We walked around the house and made a decision.

Before evacuating, we piled all the wood thrown by the Salanders inside the house, piled the Creelian wool and cloth on the firewood, and then we lit a fire and nailed thick planks to the doorway with spikes. When we started attacking the next batch of Salander thugs. Black smoke had begun to rise from the small building, and the Salanders jumped down, either dead or wounded.

There were hordes of Kugit people in the streets, and when we met them, we looked at them carefully, and they were also looking at us. They were wary of each other, but in the end they were all right. Could this be Giovanni's trick, does he have friends among the Kujites?

We continued to clear the streets, and on the corner, a group of Varans forced more than a dozen Salanders to stand in the corner, cutting off their ears. Some of the Salanders, who resisted the most, had their heads cut off, and I saw five or six headless corpses.

Some of the remaining Salanders escaped from the bazaar, and some were forced into their houses to continue their resistance. Most of the Salanders were already terrified. They continue to resist only because they are unlikely to surrender. The anger of the Valans has not yet been vented, and the Kugit are preoccupied with plundering. The search for prisoners has not yet begun.

If the people of Salander set fire to a few houses, we set the whole market on fire.

Raiding was tacitly acquiesced, and when the Salander mob and their Crelian minions were routed, the Valans were temporarily deprived of discipline. The Salanders still have trade-offs and scruples about destroying towns, while the Valans have no restraints. Everyone was excited, and although the Crelian inhabitants and Salanders chose to retreat, they always left something of value behind. Cloth, grain, metal ornaments and even gold coins were found. Valan mercenaries were very experienced, and could often dig out jars full of silver coins from under wooden planks, or gouge out unknown spices into the walls. It is said that a team of men found a basement in the stable, which contained a bucket filled with broken gold ingots and a scale.

The most unfortunate were the women, the fate of the Salander woman who did not have time to escape was no different from that of the Creelic woman. It's just that it was the Salander thugs who bullied them at first, and then the Valans. The only thing I didn't expect was that the Valans would be even more blatant than the Salanders in doing such a thing, with many half-naked women fleeing for their lives in the streets, followed by the Valans who were making noise. The Kugit were worse than the Valans, and the steppe people, who met even the slightest resistance, would kill the female captives afterwards.

I spent the whole night in the old spice warehouse, watching the Valan soldiers pile up batches of looted supplies. At one point, the Kugits seemed to want to come and raid, but a group of Varanites aimed at them with their crossbows, and the Kugits were reluctant to leave. Several Kugit caught my eye, and while they were also heavily armed, they were visibly weak.

These Kugit people seemed to be sick and thirsty, and came to us to ask for water. I filled my helmet with water and handed it to the Kugits, and my comrades guarded their property and did not allow the Kugits to enter. The Kugit were also interested, sitting by the wall, drinking water slowly and kissing the carved wooden statues of the gods. When the Kugit reached for a drink, by the light of the fire, I found that their hands were covered with sores, which I had never seen before. The Kugit had been coughing, and when they finished coughing with their palms over their mouths, I noticed that their lips and the tip of their noses were covered in blood clots.

What happened to these Kujits?

The saddest thing for me was that several women had been thrown into the warehouse as trophies by the Valans, who had been raped and cowered in fear. When I went to untie one of them, she spat in my face and ran away. After a while, the woman was carried back with her head covered in blood by a Valan.

The Valans threw her on the ground and asked me angrily, "Do you want to go out for a while?" The Valans said as they pulled the woman's legs to the sides.

"Giovanni won't allow you'''"

The Varan soldier gave me a disdainful look, "Giovanni won't take a fancy to these village women, he wants eunuch wives." ”

From that time until dawn, the screams in the market were drowned out by the small sounds of the house, and I felt a thousand gray birds flying in the sky. At daybreak, the Valanist came out swearing, wiping his face with his sleeve as he went.

"What's wrong?" A veteran of Varan across from me asked him.

"The chick bit her tongue and tried to bite me, but I tore her mouth apart," said the soldier, "and it's bad luck that I've killed another woman, and I'm going to have bad luck this year!" ”

Actually, the woman wasn't dead yet, and when I went, she was still breathing. Her mouth was bloody and fleshy, her lower lip was torn, and her teeth were exposed. What mistake did she make, how could she have died in such a painful way? I cut her throat. My strength was too small, and it took a few cuts for this woman to die. The female captives around me looked at me with extreme disgust, but when I looked at them, they all bowed their heads and stopped looking at me.

I had the idea of stopping the Kujits, but when I saw what the Varans were doing, I swallowed it in my stomach. Those who are in the company of demons are also demons themselves. And that hypocritical Variamboyar, didn't he say that men should not torture women? What does he say about what is happening now? After daybreak, the Valanian officers finally blew the horn of assembly, and the mercenaries stopped their raiding, came out of the ruined houses, and assembled on the market square.

The horn of the assembly put an end to the brutal night, and after we had lined up, we found that the Kugit were also assembled around us.

The Valans and Kugit flags flew together, the soldiers of the Alliance held their friendship together with a common brutality, and Giovanni hugged a middle-aged Kugit and said something in a different language. The Varan soldiers cheered from time to time, and the Kugit often stretched out their scimitars and made a distinctive call.

Then we began to march in procession, towards the estates that the Salander Mamluks had built outside the city. These estates are where the wealth lies, and I know that last night's brutality would have been a storm if it had been a fine rain, and that would have rained down on the Mamluks and their families.

As we left the bazaar, Creelians began to clean up the ruined town. The men looked at us quietly, then lowered their heads and silently dragged the bodies to the side of the street. Creelian imams were here to help the wounded citizens, but often Salanders disguised as Creelian citizens were uncovered, and the Valans would unceremoniously execute them. The Creel imam did not seem to care about the execution of the Salanders, and he only appeased the frightened Creelians.

Suddenly, it became clear that the Kugit had been hired at the expense of the Creelians; Giovanni hastily attacked the Sarand's trading post, and then came here; The citizens of Creel did not respond to the arrival of the Salander mob and were even harassed by the Salander mob.

Could it all have happened with the acquiescence of the Creelians?

The two armies marched towards the palm-strewn estates, and the soldiers in front of me walked in unison to the place where the Mamluks were buried.