Chapter 65 - Leverett Revolt

"Rabbits incoming!" cried the scout keeping watch beyond the burning forests where Inazuma samurai and Imperial troops had bottled in the rabbite rebels. His warning drew sneers of delight from the Regalyon captain commanding this flank."These cravens think they're home free! Lads - spears, and blades at the ready!" the Imperial captain bellowed, his pockmarked face twisted in a sadistic grin. He had personally helped torch the perimeter forests to cut off escape routes for the cornered freedom fighters. "Now the flames smoke the wretches right out of their warrens. Show them cold Regalyon steel the moment you spot those accursed long ears!"The soldiers flanking the known rabbit tunnel exits gripped weapons eagerly, and nocked arrows to bows. Thanks to Commander Hibari's merciless enclosing tactics, some encampments of rebels had no choice but to attempt to escape through their underground networks as the world burned above them. The Regalyon troops were gleeful at the chance for sport hunting outside the fire zones."Steady now...steady..." the captain whispered as soil near an exit mound began stirring. Then two furry ears popped into view followed by wide, terrified eyes. The soldiers roared and unleashed on the first rebels to emerge. Arrows and javelins pierced flesh alongside a flurry of chopping blades to hack apart the escapees. More troops began digging furiously into exit holes with shovels and picks to widen the tight gaps, allowing easier access to skewer panicked rebels trapped in the tunnels with no way out.By sundown, rebel corpses were piled high around tunnel access points. The Regalyon forces laughed and jeered until their captain called them back to defensive posts, knowing nightfall could bring fresh attempts by desperate holdouts. The grasslands now reeked of slaughtered rabbits while the surviving underground fighters huddled in the darkness, denied refuge by flame and steel.The Inazuma tactics were brutally effective - but costly. Nearly half their samurai fighters had succumbed to smoke and flames while pressing the advance against the rabbits by Lord Borran's command. The raging wildfires and envelopment left the rebels no escape on foot. Their only desperate hope was attempting to slip away undetected through their tunnel networks beyond the fire zones.By dusk, the ground was littered with rebel dead while soot-blackened samurai casualties were also hauled back to camp. The Regalyon soldiers kept vigil at the tunnel mouths for more rebel runners to emerge under night's cover - and meet the same fate. Lord Borran, their Commander in Chief smiled at the bounty - both rebel and mercenary alike - reaped by his regiment this bloody day. The last rabbit rebel holdouts still cowering underground would not evade their fate for long.The smoke stung Maeda's eyes and heat scorched his lungs as he slashed through flaming foliage. The senior samurai of the Inazuma clan had fought viciously all night to reach the center of the rabbit rebel's stronghold - the settlement known as Lapinwood in the Halfhills.Intelligence reported this was the nerve center coordinating the decade-long insurgency against Imperial rule. Now it would burn like the string of fortified villages, supply caches, and hideouts Maeda helped destroy across the grassland plateaus these past days.Emerging from the treeline, Maeda was momentarily taken aback by the serene beauty of Lapinwood's round earthen mounds dotted with cheerfully painted doors and flowering roof gardens - the fabled rabbit folk burrows. It resembled illustrations from folktales.But his reverie was shattered by screams and billowing smoke. The thatched roofs had caught a spark, defenders desperately dumping buckets of well water in vain. Imperial footmen were dragging civilians from their holes while torching every homestead.Maeda steeled himself against pity, striding towards Lapinwood's central hall flying Regalyon banners amidst the chaos. He had his duty. Every burned warren brought the realm closer to peace in the long run.The young warrior felt no remorse cutting down rebel fighters still defending their families with hoes and pitchforks. By sunset, most resistance was crushed. Lapinwood was now just another scorched ghost village in the ever-expanding Imperial territory map. Maeda rinsed the blood off his katana blank-faced by the central well as screams echoed from the ravaged hole-homes. His service here was ending; the march back to civilization would soon begin.rabbit people lived in the Halfhills, a grassy mound located usually on elevated land or hill, with the inner part of it underground. it was a defense mechanism and a great camouflage for rabbit people.The rabbit people of the Halfhills made their homesteads in the gently sloping mounds dotting the high grassland plateaus. To human eyes, each small hillock appeared no more than hummocks or burrows pocking the meadows. But they secretly housed entire underground villages crafted with skill over generations.Externally the mounds were living grass-thatched roofs allowing discreet habitation. Inside, the rabbit folk carved extensive warrens from the soft loess soil - curved walls and rounded ceilings forming networks of cozy chambers. Natural wood support beams, brightly woven textile doors, and stone-lined larders and pantries gave the interlinked dens a rustic charm.The villages were often connected to larger communal caves via meshed tunnel systems through which rebels could covertly travel far and wide. But after a decade of revolt against Regalyon rule, the rabbit fighters were finally run to ground in one such cave complex - their aboveground villages put to the torch by samurai "scorched-earth" tactics on Imperial orders.Trapped and choking, rebel elders decided opening the tunnels directly to surrender to the samurai mercenaries was the only hope for their people's survival. As dawn broke on the eleventh day of fighting, the opening grated outward...and dozens of rabbit ears emerged first cautiously into the smoky morning light.Moments later, the grime-stained rebels slowly filed out with hands raised, their white flag of parley marking noncombatant status. The proud Leverett wildlings finally bowed heads in collective submission before the impassive samurai commander Hibari. After a decade of bloody years, the revolt was over at last - to be followed by a new era of vassalage for the occupied Halfhills.Over the smoke and fire, Maeda saw the imperial soldiers executing the surrendered rabbit rebels. He intervened, making a defiant stand. Some of his fellow samurai stood with him - killing surrendered hostiles violated bushido, the sacred code.⁕⁕⁕The soldiers of Lord Borran's Regalyon army raised a triumphant cry as the last of the rabbit rebels disappeared into the tunnels coursing through the mountains."The Empire of Men prevails! Long live Regalyon!" they shouted jubilantly flying the imperial banner high, basking in their perceived victory over the resistance fighters. However, their celebration proved premature.The reality was that the Inazuma clan samurai had covertly allowed the rabbit people to escape the onslaught by retreating into those same cave tunnels. Unbeknownst to the overzealous Regalyon forces, the fleeing rabbits took pains to barricade and block off the tunnel exits behind them as they fled deeper into the mountains with their families. They were now safely out of reach from imperial pursuit.Lord Borran impatiently demanded a status report from his samurai mercenaries. "Well? Have we crushed this paltry uprising?"The Inazuma commander, Goto Hibari, stepped forward. "My Lord, the remaining rabbit forces have surrendered and withdrawn into the tunnels as you saw. We have prevailed this day."Suspicious, Lord Borran pressed further. "Then why do you delay? Take your forces and hunt them down! Put all adult rebel survivors to the sword and capture their young as spoils!"This shocked Hibari. He stood steadfast before his unpredictable employer. "Begging your pardon Lord Borran, but we did not agree to wholesale slaughter. Our contract and bushido code forbade the murder of surrendered opponents or taking of slaves."Lord Borran cared nothing for samurai codes of honor. "You will do as commanded! Now go finish them off!" he bellowed.The other Regalyon officers nodded in bloodthirsty agreement, prodding the insubordinate mercenaries.But Commander Hibari drew his line in stone. He turned to face his samurai, who stared back expectantly for guidance on this ethical crossroads.Hibari spoke assuredly as he slid his sword back into its scabbard, "We are samurai first; we have our duty." His subordinates followed suit in solemn unison - two hundred blades whispering as they sheathed in refusal."We will not disgrace ourselves by violating bushido," declared Hibari. The mounted Regalyon forces bristled angrily at this defiance, but Hibari remained steadfast before their craven commander. "Find yourselves other dishonorable lapdogs, my Lord. The Inazuma shall never sully their blade with innocent blood."When Commander Hibari defianceed Lord Borran's dishonorable orders, the war tent turned deathly still. For a samurai to defy their employer's directives was nearly unheard of in their strict warrior culture bound by duty and subservience.Yet Bushido demanded still greater moral courage to resist commands that went against righteous principles.It was against the bushido code, their way of life as a warrior class. Samurais and Median warriors held their code of conduct. Unlike knights in Wessen who had no concept of war crimes.Lord Borran stepped right up to Hibari until they were nearly nose-to-nose, his hot breath brushing the samurai's face as he glared into the silent man's unflinching eyes. The simmering tension hung thicker than the smoke from the burning bamboo forests outside.When Borran finally broke the painful silence, his voice was a venomous hiss. "You stand in mutiny then...if you refuse my orders?""It appears so, Borran-dono," Hibari replied evenly as he stood motionless before this dishonorable employer. He knew there was no turning back now from this fatal decision, come what may.Lord Borran turned slowly, eyes narrow with malevolent intent. He silently nodded to his fanatically loyal retinue of bodyguard knights standing ready behind him, hands tightening around sword hilts."Very well," Lord Borran muttered before marching from the tent, deaf to the cries of his brutish captain swinging a longsword viciously toward Hibari's neck in a treacherous ambush.But the fool underestimated samurai reflexes. In the next instant, the captain's head was spinning detached through the air, and severed by a lightning-fast counterstrike from another Inazuma katana.Outside the tent, Lord Borran's embittered smirk went unseen. By rebelling against orders, the mercenaries had given him grounds to eliminate them without paying their full contract. Now his own ranks could readily butcher them as oathbreakers...two scheming ambitions fulfilled in one ruthless gambit.Yet against the Inazuma clan's peerless warriors, the coming battle would prove far bloodier than Borran ever bargained for...⁕⁕⁕Chaos erupted as alarms sounded across the Imperial Army encampment. "Mutiny! The shrimps turn on us!" imperial soldiers shouted in panic, referring to the Inazuma mercenaries by their diminutive stature.Maeda and his samurai unit had just returned from battling the rabbit rebel forces. Exhausted and hungry, they hoped for a meal and night's rest. Instead, they found themselves surrounded by scores of wild-eyed Imperial footsoldiers pointing swords and spears their way."What is the meaning of this madness?" demanded Ishii-Taichou. No response came save for a dozen stabbing blades. The samurai had no choice but to fight for their lives against their own supposed allies.Though weary, the Inazuma warriors were vastly more skilled than the less skilled Regalyon troops. Maeda alone cut down three opponents with efficient strikes before his comrades cleared an escape path toward their camp.But Maeda knew they could not keep this up indefinitely. The Regalyon had numbers and stamina over the battered samurai. "Taichou! We must fall back and regroup!" Maeda urged his captain, Ishii.Just then Commander Hibari came rushing into view, his katana bloodied. "All forces return to camp!" Hibari bellowed. "The Imperials have voided our contract!"Upon rejoining Ishii, Hibari quickly explained how Lord Borran had ordered the utter slaughter of the now-surrendered rabbit folks against the contracted terms.Tension mounted as Maeda met the imperial captain's glare, his hand tightening on his sword hilt. The other samurai shifted, katanas halfway drawn, ready to fight their own allies to uphold the sacred code."It is mutiny then," Captain Ishii murmured grimly as the imperial soldiers pressed their attack on the defenseless rebels.The samurai now grasped the full gravity of events - they had been cast as oathbreaker mercenaries. With weary limbs but indomitable wills, the outcast warriors formed their last stand circle within the camps, prepared to die upholding Bushido over dishonor. And the Imperial forces seemed eager to oblige."Stop talking, we have to get out of here," Ishii urged."It's too late," Maeda's words hung heavy in the smoke-choked air as Regalyon soldiers surrounded them, deep in the heart of the encampment.The samurai made a defensive circle, fending off any imperial soldier who came too close. "Why do they want to kill us? Will we have to fight them?" another warrior asked Ishii-Taichou in disbelief."They want to kill the surrendered rabbit people," Commander Hibari growled, deflecting a sword strike.As Maeda and his brothers fought off the imperials, Ishii-Taichou called out, "I have a plan!"Hibari fended off another attacker. "Spill it before we all die.""The rabbit's cave, we can use that as an escape route. It's our best bet."Hibari glanced towards where the rabbit rebels had made their last stand. The fires had been extinguished, but smoke still lingered thick in the forest air.Raising his katana high, Hibari bellowed, "Inazuma with me!" over and over.The embattled samurai heard his rallying cry and waited tensely for his order while engaging the enemy."All Inazuma to the cave!" Hibari roared, his order repeated by the captains and senior samurai until their shouts filled the encampment."Inazuma banzai!!" came the thunderous war cry as the samurai charged toward one point, focusing all their might to break the imperial soldiers' defensive line. They rushed headlong into the rabbit's cave, hoping the exit remained open."Everyone, to the cave!"Cutting down any Regalyon soldier in their path, the samurai fought their way toward their only hope of escape, some falling to blades, fire, or smoke along the way.From three hundred, only seven made it into the cave's mouth, quickly setting up defenses within as the remaining imperial forces laid siege, blocking off their exit.The hunters had become the hunted, the samurai now trapped in the very cave they had so recently besieged.⁕⁕⁕