A Nightly Gathering
Beneath the dark skies of the chilly night, stood a small village amidst the wilderness. Like the shining stars up above the skies, the village was illuminated with torches glowing brightly with light and warmth. The village seemed secure within its perimeter of fences made of wood, bamboo and concrete. On the outskirts of the village, armed militias were on patrol with torches of their own. Some of these militias wielded blades and swords, while others carried their crossbows alongside their quivers loaded with arrows.
Within the village, most of the houses were immersed in darkness, but a few handful of them were still well-lit with burning lamps. One of those was a large village hall, where the villagers assemble under one rooftop.
"Wait, what? But, milord, we know not what lies beneath Alkesonna!" one bald man with a big, muscular figure stood up and objected, "Are we really going to that far away from our homeland? Are we going to trust this... snake wife of yours?!"
"Yes, mister Fritzel," a resolute, stern voice echoed from a tall, grown man with a youthful face showing a slight smirk, "Either we die for freedom with no regrets, or rot in slavery and misery to those warlords."
"But, milord!" Fritzel gasped, "That's insanity! At least we are familiar with the princes, monks and samurais!"
Sigisbërt heaved a sigh and pondered in silence for awhile before replying, "If your house is full of shits and rats, would you rather spend living in such a stinking mess forever? Or, instead, take some time and get your hands dirty to clean up?"
Fritzel gave a displeased, reluctant look, stomping the floor once before answering, "Of course, I would clean it up as soon as possible, rather than having to live in flith forever."
"Exactly. What awaits here is a certain tragedy, but what lies beyond is a breath of fresh air from this stinky swamp and a land of plentiful opportunities. We must flee the swamp while we still have the chance. Be quick, for time is mana!"
A brief applause from the crowds then followed after Sigisbërt finished.
"Yes! Freedom for Gihin!"
"We need a good future!"
"Our Kongsi needs to grow again!"
"Make Gihin great again!"
"Good," Sigisbërt let out a smirk to the crowds, "Now, we need to find a way. A way to get out of this swamp, as painless and swift as possible."
Fritzel glared at a reptilian lady with a nest of snakes as hair with contempt. "Any bright ideas, oh my greatest great snake lady?"
"Silence, mister," Sigisbërt shouted while the reptilian lady, Cadusa, leaned closer to Sigisbërt and hugged his left arm, "How rude. You do not talk to Cadusa like that! She is above you, and she is my trusted and loved one. Understood?"
"Y-yes, milord... Pardon..."
"You owe an apology to her, not to me."
Fritzel slowly faced Cadusa and, with reluctance and hesistance, uttered his apology to the reptilian lady. Cadusa gave Fritzel a wicked grin, which only helped making Fritzel contempt her even more.
"Directly confronting the Yongs nor the Dankols is a suicide. The House of Lenggung, being a vassal to both powers, would likely stop us as well. What we need is something that distracts and weakens them, while keeping ourselves out of harm's way. Although we are surrounded by many, they are not entirely of one heart. Some of them may even have sympathies to our Kongsi. We can turn the others against one another, so that a gap opens up for us to leave the swamp."
"Sounds good, Cadusa." Sigisbërt smiled, "Bu--"
The sounds of blades clashing interrupted. Screams and cries could be heard from the village outskirts. A skirmish had just erupted nearby.
"Fucking fuck. Is that a battle? Of course yes, duh!" Sigisbërt exclaimed, before calling his countrymen for arms. "We are under attack! Sound the alarms! Man the garrisons! Tell the other villages!"
"Yes, milord," a few Triads in fancier clothing promptly headed off, presumably messengers.
"Right when we are planning our escape, ugh. But these troublemakers shall taste my wrath. Nobody disturbs me like that!"
* * *
Raid!
Three raiding platoons marched their ways to the village and began assaulting the patroling Triads. A fierce battle ensued. So far, the raiders had the upper hand as they overwhelmed the Triads in quality and quantity. Several lawaspawns and wind wyverns emerged to fight the intruders, while the intruders sent waterlings and slimes in response. Rains of waterballs and fireballs would meet head-on alongside volleys of arrows and spears.
Many more villagers and Triads awoke from their slumbers and promptly grabbed their weapons to war. Many of the houses were turned into makeshift garrisons, where the Triads would rain down fiery arrows to the invaders. The raiders, however, did happen to bring a few catapults. Their catapults hurled boulders, on fire with burning oil, to crush the Triads' petty garrisons and to drench the village in hellfire.
"Surrender to the Empress, heathens!" yelled a captain in shiny yellow armor as he beheaded a Triad warrior.
"We would rather die in honor, than to kneel in cowardice!" a Triad crossbower emerged from the bushes and shot a burning arrow at the captain's face. "Onwards, homies!"
The Triads shouted war cries as they strengthened their valor against the intruders.
"Ouch! You will pay for this, heathens!"
As the battle unfolded, Yong soldiers kept getting closer to the village, while many Triads perished before their might defending their homeland. For every foot of advance, a dozen of Triads were butchered in their defense. Eventually, the Yongs broke through the outskirts and made their way to the village innards.
* * *
To the Rescue
More than half of the village fell under the raiders. Many houses were set ablaze as the raiders pushed through. Only a few dozens of Triads were left standing within the village, defiantly fighting to the end. Meanwhile, the Yong soldiers had only rose in numbers.
"Hahahaha! Look at your pitiful numbers, look at all these glorious corpses! You simple folk are no match to our steel and magic."
"Are you sure about that?" Sigisbërt's voice echoed from behind.
A massive easterly wind had come to wash the raiders ashore. Several tornadoes, ablaze with green flames, were racing towards the raiders from all directions.
"Holy Tiensho!"
The platoons broke their formations as they tried dodging the storms. Despite their best efforts, however, some of them ended up being caught in the storms, and found themselves burning in flames before being flung up high into the skies as fiery comets. Some of these fiery tornadoes had engulfed the burning houses, but that did not matter anyways as they were already burning to ashes.
The many survivors ran around in horror and chaos, with much of their previous might and discipline blown away into hellfire. Despite so, they stubbornly fought on. Many more Triads, with much better weaponry and clothing, surfaced from everywhere and encircled the raiders.
"How dare you disturb me while I am in the middle of some meeting--"
"Shit," Sigisbërt interrupted himself, with a look of worry on his face, "Anyways, you will pay! Not just for fucking with me, but for fucking with my fellow homies as well!"
"S-say what you want, heathen, but our Empress sh-shall c-c-con-onquer... your backward tribe... o-one day." another smug captain boasted even as he shuddered in fear. "Get your flithy criminal hands off me, heathens!" Other raiders muttered similar snobbish words, all the while fighting with their limbs trembling in horror.
The Triads beat many of these snobs to their comas and deaths, but some of them spoke their last words in pride even as they die in fear. However, there were also many Yong soldiers that cowardly gave in to the Triads, but even after they surrendered themselves, the scornful look remained on their faces alongside a new shameful look.
"It is impressive, that you speak so highly of yourself and belittle others, even as your fearful faces betray your pride. Heck, even your last words..." Sigisbërt mocked, "I can clearly see the word 'fear' written all over your cowardly faces."
"Alright, we can stop. We need to keep some of them alive." Cadusa spoke.
"But, missy, why?" Fritzel objected as usual, "If they are still alive, they can escape and then tell expose everything they know about us!"
"We will seduce... and torture them... at the same time... for information."
"What? Can't you see that they are boastful lots? They will n--"
"We do not have to kill every single enemy, that we meet on the battlefield. Rather, we can make good use of them in our captivity." Sigisbërt interrupted.
Eventually, the few dozens of frightened raiders surrendered crying in fear and pain. Their fear was equally from the fear of their lives, the fear of failing their Empress and the fear of getting molested by the flithy Triads.
"Arrrgh!! Enough!!!"
"Stop molesting my beautiful skin!"
Sigisbërt let out a chuckle and shot them an amused look, "Fine, fine, you bitches. We'll drag you to our kernels, where your true homes are!"
"We are going to... have some fun with you..." Sigisbërt cackled wickedly as the Triads dragged the raiders away......
* * *
The Storms Are Brewing
After conducting several sabotages and raids across the borders between Lingnam and Annam, the Gihin Kongsi had instigated chaos between Lenggung House and Kilatkëris House. Kilatkëris, rulers of Annam, firstly put the blame on Lenggung, the house in charge of Lingnam. Lenggung at first suspected, that it was the Triads' doing, but eventually with itself being accused, The House of Lenggung had blamed the House of Kilatkëris as well. Conspiracy theories and rumors of all sorts quickly circulated back and forth between the borders, as war seemed closer by every day. Lenggung House has redirected much of their forces, from hunting the Gihin Triads, to securing the borderlands with Annam.
In addition, the Gihin Kongsi had also snatched what valuables, that they could get their hands on, while pulling off their raids and sabotages.
Meanwhile, inside a fishing village...
"Alright," Sigisbërt spoke to the crowds of Triads and villagers gathering before him, "we have created enough chaos and even helped ourselves with some pillages. With the warlords busy bickering with each other, it is time for us to go, while we still can,"
"Milord!" several messengers approached Sigisbërt, "the Dankolians have blocked the sea routes, and they are appearing eager for a war. Likewise, the Farmosians have also amassed warships of their own."
Another group of messengers arrived, bearing the same grave news.
"Wait, what the fuck? Really?"
"Of course, milord. Furthermore, with the Dankolians and Farmosians amassing their numbers on the seas, the feudal lords will likely watch their coasts again,"
"Damn... It always has to be the time when we are already done... Our feeble ships are no match for the Dankolian warships and revenants. We will have to go all the way to the north firstly, then. Anyways, thanks,"
The Gihin Triads begrudingly packed up their things again and vacated from the coastal settlements, heading toward the jungles...
