Baldric drew first, hitting six soldiers on their hands, chests, and necks, and they were all taken out as the crystals began to rapidly creep up their bodies, cementing them in place. Sylvie charged and drew their fire before the other soldiers around them could. She used live rounds, but shot them in non-vital areas. Baldric ducked into cover while she distracted the shooters.

House by house, they cleared the village, with Sylvie drawing all the soldiers' fire, her thick plating making the bullets merely bounce off. Meanwhile, Willow ate the soldiers and spat them out high into the air, as the soldiers fell down with a loud thud, knocking them out. Annie came from behind Willow and, armed with a pipe, took out those who still remained awake. They finished the battle in minutes and successfully apprehended fifteen imposters.

After seeing that they were safe, the citizens of the village came out as well and cheered, but Baldric and Annie rushed to the wounded old couple, whose granddaughter was crying for them to wake up. With the help of the citizens, he brought the couple into the shop where Elizabeth had already finished healing Stephen, and he was already on his feet.

Stephen asked that they place the couple down and asked everyone to leave to let Elizabeth perform her magic. As Greta, Stephen, Baldric, and Annie watched Elizabeth heal the wounded old couple, Stephen whispered to Baldric. "We won’t tell anyone about her magic."

“Thank you.” Baldric whispered back.

When the old couple were reunited with their granddaughter and everyone walked out of the shop, Baldric, Annie, Sylvie, Willow, and especially Elizabeth, were hailed as heroes.

"Excuse me, Captain." One of the villagers approached Baldric and saluted him.

Oh right, I used rank.

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"We were wondering what to do with the prisoners." The fake soldiers were still tied up or encased in crystals.

"Is there a place where we can hold these men?" Baldric saluted back.

"We have an abandoned house with a cellar we can use as a jail-"

"You think you won?!" The leader of the fake soldiers interrupted them. "There are more of us in Vehlmer! And one of us escaped! We will burn this village to the ground!"

The people around them began to panic, but Baldric raised his hand. "Put these men in the cellar and tie them up tightly. Have someone guard them as well. Who is the village representative or the head of the village?"

"That would be me, Captain." It was Stephen who joined them. Baldric smiled and nodded at him.

"Does this town have an Armory or weapons, Stephen?"

"We have an arms locker but we only have small arms. But no one here knows how to fire weapons." Baldric looked around and noticed that most of the people were looking to him for direction.

"Everyone don’t worry. We won’t leave this town defenseless, but I won’t lie to any of you, a fight with them is inevitable. We will interrogate the prisoners first to get the exact details of their numbers, so we know how many we are up against. Until then, everyone remain in your homes and wait for us to call you all out for our plan on what to do next." Baldric said to the crowd.

"You want us to fight them?" An old man at the front said to him.

"No. We will never ask that of you. We need to get everyone to a secure place if they are coming here. We also have reinforcements on the way as well, and I guarantee you we are more than a match for them. But I will say this here, we will not abandon you."

The villagers were slightly reassured and slowly returned to their homes. Sylvie was not impressed and stared him down.

"Vhat are you doing?!" She said to him softly, "Are you zeriouz of uz ztaying here and fighting theze zoldierz?!"

"Fake soldiers Sylvie and I know I messed up alright." Baldric realized the mess he had walked himself into. "Look, it’s my fault completely, but it’s too late to back down now.

"What if real Zilvuz Zoldierz show up?" Sylvie pressed him. "You forget, all of you are being hunted down."

"Look, we'll stay here. Knock down some soldiers, be the talk of the town, and get out right away." Baldric assured the GEA. "Nothing we haven’t done before."

"I hope you know what you are doing ere Baldric."

Unknown to Sylvie, Baldric did not know what he was doing.