Flight of The Harpy's Heart

Chapter xx: 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.