Debauchery Hunter 18 (Patreon)

Sponsored by Southmonk

Debauchery Hunter
Chapter 18

-VB-

Earth Malachite

When we arrived east of Regensburg, we found an army waiting for us.

It was… exceedingly small. We expected to fight an army in the thousands, maybe even tens of thousands. What we found instead was an army of barely over a thousand.

We realized no more than ten minutes later that we hadn't given them enough time to gather their men.

This wasn't a game. In reality, lords needed to gather their levies and bring them to a location, and then they would march. These levies were gathered from all over their fief, and with both how quickly we made our way to Regensburg and the chaos we have caused by only burning towns and villages but mostly sparing the people, there was no way the duke would have been able to gather all of his levies.

What was in front of us was at best the levies from the immediate area and the duke's men-at-arms.

Disappointing.

Would there be more of them if we waited?

.. No, it was unlikely. Even if we did decide to wait, how long would we have to and how many would gather?

No. It would still be less than a hundred against a thousand.

We raised a white flag of parley and saw a group do the same from the Bavarian army.

Three of the clones walked to the middle of the field and they did the same.

A trio of men approached us, and all of them were armored and armed, though weapons were sheathed or pointing away from us. The lead man stepped forward and glanced at us up and down.

"... I am Otto, the count in Pegnitz. Who are you that burns and pillages your way across the lands of the Bavarians, subjects of the Roman Emperor*?" he demanded.

"Those wronged by the Duke of Bavaria," we replied. "We are of the Marris and had settled in the Alps. We have been attacked twice now, both times by those claiming to work for the Duke of Bavaria."

"Do you have proof?"

"The first attack was led by a knight who claimed to be from Rosenheim. The second attack was led by mercenaries, who had this." We pulled out a copy of the mercenary contract. "This is a copy of the contract we found on the mercenaries after we dispatched them."

We handed it over and the count took it. He read it and grimaced.

"This is dishonorable," he muttered, though he probably meant to be heard by no one. "Burning and pillaging his own people…?"

"In retaliation, we burned down all major towns on our march here. We will not leave until concessions have been made."

The count grimaced. "He is still your liege lord. You cannot -."

"We have… and we will continue until our demands are met."

"With only a hundred men?"

"Less. And yet we burned Landeck, Innsbruck, and Munich. We have killed over two thousand defenders, many of them men-at-arms like those behind you, and dozens of knights. One thousand more will not stop us."

"Those are crimes against the emperor."

"If the emperor cared, then he would be here. Hell, is the duke even here?"

His face reddened but didn't retaliate to our words. "... What are your demands?"

"We are independent of the Duchy of Bavaria. From the town of Nauders to Schlanders and then to Zernez, and everything in between."

The count shook his head. "He will never accept that."

"That is just the first part of our demands."

"Impossible."

"Then we fight."

"We fight."

Both of our parties returned to our sides of the battlefield.

And then they marched forward.

We held up our guns, all assault fires, and fired.

Firing from well outside their range, we watched between the trembling recoils and flashes of light of our gunfire as men and knights fell without even being able to close the gap. The death of the first hundred or so shocked the soldiers.

The count, atop his horse and shouting commands, tried in vain to hold it together.

But when the second one hundred victims fell with holes all over their bodies, they broke and routed. We didn't even bother chasing them down.

The count rallied his knights and light cavalry. They formed up and charged.

Barks of our gunfire downed their horses instantly. Horses tumbled forward and riders flew off or flopped around along with the horses. The unlucky few got crushed by horses crashing into them from behind.

As one, we reloaded and then walked up to the downed men of the ruined cavalry charge.

We found the count. He was nearly dead with his chest caved in. He looked up at us with blood dribbling down from his lips.

"Where is the duke? The longer this goes on, the more your countrymen suffer," we demanded with all of the authority we could muster.

"In… the keep."

And then he was dead.

We turned as one towards the one building that towered over the rest over the stone walls.

We didn't even bother to bring down the walls. No, the city made for a much better hostage if we left it intact. We portaled directly to the top of the keep.

We stormed the keep, breaking down doors, shooting any defenders, and capturing any non-combatants. We found the duke after ten minutes, and the man had been caught while trying to run away in a woman's clothes.

"I-I am the duke!" he roared. "A prince of the Kingdom of the Germans and -!" he shrieked as we dragged him up to the top of the tower.

We punched him.

He screamed like a pig.

"You sent mercenaries to violate and kill the people who were under our protection," we snapped loudly while thrusting the mercenary contract to his face. "You declared war on us! Don't think you'll be leaving this place scot-free!"

The Duke, a frail-looking man currently dressed in a peasant woman’s long skirt and shirt, trembled. "W-what do you want? Ransom?"

"No. You will acknowledge our independence from the Duchy of Bavaria. You will give us unrestricted free trade into your Duchy. You will cede all of Innsbruck county to us."

We were intentionally reaching for more than what we wanted. This way, it made it easier for us to get what we want and left the enemy feeling like they won at the negotiations.

Just to make a point, three of our clones loaded up each of their rocket launchers and fired simultaneously at one of the two towers of the keep.

The rockets flew across the keep and slammed into the base of the tower before exploding into a cacophony of smoke and fire.

To our surprise, the tower collapsed inward and ceased to exist.

"I swear! I will cede Innsbruck to you and grant you independence!" he shrieked as he kept covering his face with his arms and hands.

Our clones stared at each other before looking back at him.

… huh. That was easy.

We pulled out a piece of paper and a ballpoint pen.

“Sign. Now.”

-VB-

*Title of the German portion of the HRE at the time and for some time to come.