The security officer's calm thinking made Chapelle sober up in an instant, and he decisively assembled all the armed forces of the Eternal Flame.
Most of these people were still enemies from before, but Shapet could see the eternal fire burning in their eyes:
“Many of you are sinners today, and now is the time for you to atone for your sins.
Let's go and protect our Novigrad!"
…
Novigrad Plaza.
There are several huge stakes set up here for the Eternal Flame, but these torture instruments have not been used for a long time since Chapelle suffered a stroke and recovered.
But today, they are being lit again, and the torches are not held by the Eternal Flame - but by the Mafia.
"As expected, the people of Eternal Flame don't care about us at all. We can make as much noise as we want!"
Hawthorne II's men laughed wildly. They put on clown makeup and danced excitedly as they listened to the screams coming from the stake.
Among those being tortured on the stake were members of their rival gangs, shop owners who usually opposed them, and homeless people they had just pulled from the streets.
"The Beggar King and the machete man didn't take action, but it doesn't matter. The underworld doesn't need cowards!"
"Everyone, go and plant the flags of the Ghost Face Gang in every store and casino you can see. From today onwards, there will only be one gang in Novigrad, and that is..."
With a "puff", the leader had not yet finished speaking under the fanatical gaze of his subordinates, when an arrow that came from nowhere pierced his neck in full view of everyone.
Kolgrim put down the crossbow in his hand, his eyes cold. Although the traditional equipment of the Snake Sect does not include a crossbow, the demon hunters who traveled far and wide always know a little bit of everything.
After killing the leader, Kolgrim no longer looked at the noisy Ghost Face Gang minions and turned away.
He moved between the rooftops as if it were flat ground. It was dangerous for a demon hunter acting alone to be surrounded, and he now had a more urgent mission.
The original mission of the three members of the Snake Faction was to stay on standby in the city of Novigrad to prevent any accidents from happening.
They had determined a day ago that the gangs would no longer be a problem and thought this would be an unremarkable mission. Oaks even clamored to find Reso to help Lane.
But who knew that the person who tried to prevent accidents would unexpectedly encounter an accident.
The riot started. And unlike the original plan to stay away from the Temple Island and avoid casualties among the believers, these gangsters with funny clown makeup were destroying almost everything in their sight.
After Hawthorne's death, Hawthorne II took over the power of the family. He was a terrorist who was even more cruel and shameless than his father. He released all the thugs and criminals in the family almost immediately, and then set off a carnival in the peaceful Novigrad.
The people of the Eternal Fire were busy fighting among themselves, and there was no order in the city. The Beggar King and the Machete were not prepared for a fight, and for a moment they let the Ghost Face Gang rampage through the city, and the situation deteriorated to the extreme in an instant.
Anticipating that something was amiss, the three members of the Snake Faction took action immediately and forcibly attacked and killed Hawthorne II, who was under heavy protection, without any plan, thus ending his one-day career as a gang leader.
But the riots did not stop as they had imagined, and there was no way to retract the knife that had been drawn.
"This was my mission, but I failed. The fault of this riot is all my fault." Serrit apologized to his companions with self-blame. His mission was to assassinate Hawthorne. He completed it well, but now the situation is very bad.
"No." Kolgrim shook his head. "This is our mission, and now we should make up for our mistakes."
The Hawthorne family's gang had been operating for a long time, with nearly a thousand thugs spread across most of Novigrad. The Snake Faction split into three groups, and they had no way to stop all the gang thugs. They could only kill their leaders to slow down their destruction.
"Lane, Chapelle, whoever it is, please finish your work quickly and come here—"
As if the voice in the Snake Faction Demon Hunter's heart was heard, a rumbling sound of horse hooves suddenly came from the avenue at the city gate.
At this time, there were more than a dozen gang members scattered on the main road, with Eternal Flame promotional flyers under their feet.
They were attracted by the rumbling sound of horse hooves, and when they looked up, they saw a column of fire coming towards them that almost filled the entire road.
These dozen gangsters were ignited and turned into torches in an instant.
——[Igni Seal: Explosion]!
Before they could continue screaming, a blond knight rode out from the guard of flames, followed by a large group of well-armed cavalrymen.
Swords swung together, and in an instant, these evil gangsters were silent. They fell to the ground, and the burning prayers of the Eternal Fire were scattered on the street:
[Eternal fire, you ignite our hearts and give us light.
Please give us warmth, wipe our tears, burn our enemies, and bless our friends. 】
"Lann!" The snake-faction demon hunter shouted happily, jumped over the roof with a few jumps, rolled on the ground to relieve the impact, and pounced in front of the cavalry team.
Lann had a brief exchange with Kolgrim. After learning the situation at the scene, he decisively gave orders to his subordinates.
"House, Levin, Milva, you each lead a squad of cavalry. Make killing the gangsters your first priority, and quell the chaos as quickly as possible. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Lord Earl!"
After a pause, Lann added: "Under the banner of Cintra, display the lion emblem more prominently."
"Yes, Lord Earl!"
The cavalry team immediately split into three. These gangsters without even armor were no match for the fully armed cavalry. Facing them, the Cintra cavalry was even enough to fight ten of them at once.
"The cavalry can only run on the main roads. They can't run on the side roads. Kolgrim, please go find the Beggar King and Machete and ask them to cooperate with our operation. If they agree, tell them that Chapelle has a big reward. If they refuse, tell them that the Eternal Flame will liquidate all the gangs in the city and only keep 'friends'."
"Okay, leave it to me. I'll go find Oaks or Serrit!"
Finally, Lan turned and looked at Letho.
The bald man asked consciously, "What do you need me to do?"
"I don't know what the situation is like on Temple Island, please go check it out. If it's over, tell Chapelle about the danger here. We need quick support here."
Reso nodded and left.
Soon, only Lann and a few guards were left on the field.
Lan took a deep breath. This incident happened suddenly. He didn't expect that Hawthorne II, who had suddenly come to power, would be so crazy.
Compared to the original novel, this gang leader is younger, more cruel, and more reckless. Moreover, the original order forces in the city were not there, and he actually took advantage of the loophole.
That won't do. Lann needs a prosperous Novigrad as his friend.
However, this accident also brought some gains, and it could even be considered a good thing for Lann. After all, as a foreign army, there were not many opportunities to intervene in a city's defense forces to quell chaos, save civilians, and enhance reputation...
Not far ahead, a loud explosion suddenly sounded, attracting Lan's attention.
These gangsters actually used explosives.
Lann's eyes narrowed: "Let's go and help!"
This is a large courtyard south of Novigrad Square, with the gate locked tightly. After the Ghost Face Gang slaughtered innocent citizens who had no time to find a hiding place in the square, they finally set their sights here.
In theory, in order to incite chaos and expand the results of the war as much as possible, the gangs should not pay attention to the closed iron gates, but should look for those narrow alleys or low-rise houses that are easy to break into.
But no one knew what or who was inside the courtyard. At this moment, these gangsters showed amazing enthusiasm for the courtyard and even used things like alchemical explosives.
That is to say, in Novigrad, the underground gangs can really get any lethal weapons.
The people in the courtyard had long been trembling with fear from the noise outside. Now that the courtyard was breached, they were even more frightened and scattered. A quick look revealed that there were both men and women inside, and even quite a few dwarfs and disabled people.
But not everyone was fleeing, there were also brave ones: several men in strange costumes stood up with swords and tried to resist the gangsters. They were dressed like knights, but their armor was missing pieces, and they were holding wooden swords or knives.
These strangely dressed "knights" used awkward fighting postures and loudly encouraged themselves, but when they really came into close combat with the gangsters, their armor was easily broken, and they were killed by these vicious gangsters in a single encounter.
This was actually a theater, and the "knights" were wearing nothing more than costumes. It would have been fine if they had just made some gestures and danced on the stage, but unfortunately this time they were brandishing swords against real desperadoes.
Seeing the death of their companions, there were shrill cries in the theater, and the people of the Ghost Face Gang became even more excited.
Terrorists dressed as clowns rushed into the colorful theater, as if they were performing a bloody stage play.
"I want to find Irena and make her wear princess clothes!"
"Go away, she's mine. I want her to dress up as a tree spirit and spend the last moments with me!"
"Come one by one, she belongs to everyone!"
The gangsters rushed into the theater shouting outrageous slogans.
The owner of this theater was kind-hearted and had accepted many citizens who had nowhere to hide in the streets during the early days of the chaos. But now they were all trapped in a jar, crying and shouting but with nowhere to escape.
The adults were all intimidated by the brutality of the gangsters, but a few ignorant teenagers rushed out wielding swords, trying to protect the women and innocent citizens in the theater.
A gangster with triangular eyes easily knocked a child to the ground, and tugged at a half-grown child with blond hair in a funny way: "Haha, it's an interesting game, kid. Do you know what the ending of the knight is?"
The young man struggled constantly, seemingly not knowing what fear was. On the chest of his costume was a lion with bared fangs and claws. He kept shouting, "Let me go! I am the lion of Cintra, and you are not allowed to hurt my fellow theater members!"
Maybe the theater was rehearsing a new play recently and the child was too immersed in the play, and his ridiculous words caused the villains to laugh.
"The Lion of Cintra? Hahaha, how could he possibly care about Novigrad's affairs?"
A brown-haired, brown-eyed woman swung a wooden stick, but she was so weak that she was soon knocked to the ground, with only the strength left to beg for mercy:
"Don't hurt the child, please!"
In addition to people who love art, the troupe occasionally adopts street kids as apprentices. For them, the troupe is their home, which is why these young people are braver than adults at this moment.
The men wearing clown masks had evil eyes: "Don't worry, we will hurt you soon - Ms. Irena."
The terrorists' attention was drawn to the actress in the troupe, but they did not notice that a child in the crowd hiding nearby suddenly began to twitch all over.
His body began to wriggle and swell like plasticine, growing taller and stronger until it reached adult size under the horrified gaze of the children around him. His hair also gradually turned white, straightened, and lengthened, finally falling on his shoulders.
The skin on his body shone with an oily sheen, turning into black leather covering his body; silver studs and chain mail appeared on his shoulders and sleeves, his ruddy face became elongated and pale, and his eyes shone with an amber glow.
Two swords also appeared above his right shoulder, and a wolf head emblem swayed on his chest.
The woman lying on the ground saw everything clearly. She murmured in surprise: "Dudu..."
"I'm sorry, Miss Irena, I've been having a lot of fun at the theater. But I'm actually a shapeshifter."
The shapeshifting monster named "Dudu" opened his amber cat eyes, drew the sword behind him and pounced towards the stunned gangsters.
His sword swung out as fast as the wind, and he moved swiftly and skillfully, like a swordsman who had been immersed in killing for many years.
His reaction was swift and his speed was amazing, and his left hand would occasionally release amazing impact storms in coordination with his sword moves, which could easily tear through the encirclement of the gangsters and defeat them one by one.
The only flaw is that his sword moves are not fierce enough. Faced with many situations where he could kill with one blow, he would often hesitate for a while, thus missing many opportunities.
So after the initial few seconds of being shocked by the shapeshifter's transformation, the villains' counterattack followed.
The dagger could not penetrate the hard armor created by the shapeshifter, but there were also a few axes mixed in. The shapeshifter was no match for four hands with two fists, and soon he was covered in wounds.
"Stop, that monster over there!"
Just when the shapeshifter was at his wit's end, he suddenly heard a roar. He swung his sword vigorously to avoid the enemy in front of him and jumped out of the battle circle. When he turned around, he saw a scene that shocked him.
It turned out that while the low-level thugs in front were mindlessly using their bodies to feed the enemy's swords, the leaders had already retreated to a safe place and held the hostages in their hands.
In addition to the blond boy at the beginning, they also captured a believer of the Eternal Fire who was praying constantly, and there were more gangsters taking hostages.
The gangs have many ways to achieve victory.
The shapeshifter became very anxious upon seeing this, and he made a seal with his left hand, suddenly creating a telekinetic impact in front of him. Then he crouched down and rushed into the crowd with a sword in hand, slashing left and right and forcing these villains back.
It's not that he doesn't care about the hostages, but the rationality of his current body tells him: if he lets the villain lead him by the nose at this moment, not only will he fail to save the hostages, but more of his friends may be sacrificed.
It was probably the first time that those villains encountered such a decisive warrior. After being stunned for a second, he woke up as if from a dream. He picked up the blond boy in his hand and suddenly stabbed him with a dagger:
"Stop it, you filthy monster! If you don't want to leave more bloody holes on the little ghost, stop it!"
The blond boy screamed as he was stabbed.
Another believer who was held hostage was also stabbed, and the sound of his prayer was distorted:
"The Eternal Fire will not let you go!"
The hostages were attacked, and screams filled their ears. At this moment, Dudu's deformed thoughts surged up again, and the man who was wielding a long sword and killing people in the field suddenly froze in his movements.
His cheeks kept twitching, as if he was enduring something: "Put him down, I can spare your lives and let you leave here alive."
Seeing that the threat worked, the Triangle Eyes Gang breathed a sigh of relief and laughed: "Your theater actually harbors a monster, and it's a shapeshifter! As long as this news gets out, even if we don't come back here, the Eternal Fire will turn everything here into ashes!"
He looked at the shapeshifter, his eyes flashing with fierce and greedy light: "I have a better idea... Put down the sword and follow us. From now on, this theater will be the territory of our Ghost Face Gang..."
"Dudu, don't worry about me!" The boy held by Triangle Eyes suddenly struggled violently. Blood kept oozing out of the place where he was stabbed by the dagger, and the little boy cried loudly in pain.
But even so, he was still crying out: "I am the Lion of Cintra! Lann Lannister Rhaanron! Leave me alone!"
After saying that, he took advantage of the triangular-eyed gangster's unpreparedness and bit his hand hard, causing him to scream in pain.
"Damn brat!" The villain felt the pain and became furious, ready to raise the dagger and make more holes in the child's back.
The shapeshifter Dudu was shocked: "Stop!"
He was about to step forward, waving his sword, but he was too fast to save the boy when he suddenly heard the sound of an arrow breaking through the air.
With a "puff", a metal arrow popped out from Triangle Eyes' neck. Blood foam kept coming out of his mouth, and he was obviously in pain. But at this moment, he couldn't even lower his head to take a look at his wound.
The gang members didn't notice the enemies behind them at all, and only turned back in panic at this moment.
At the entrance of the theater, a blond knight put down the crossbow in his hand. He carried two swords on his back and a majestic lion was painted on his armor.
Everyone in the field was stunned for a moment. They looked at the blond boy who had fallen to the ground and had forgotten to cry, and then looked at the blond knight at the door.
At this time, Lann also saw the situation clearly.
A child who imitates himself, and a... one-to-one replica of Geralt without the scar?
"Dudu, go save Xiaolai!"
Irena screamed, and everyone in the room woke up as if from a dream.
But Lann was not at all stunned. While everyone's attention was still focused on him, he decisively raised his hand and let a hazy white light cover the head of a gangster.
[Axis Seal]!
The villain closest to the boy turned into a walking corpse on the spot, while Lann burst out with a speed far beyond that of an ordinary person. Everyone suddenly saw a gust of silver-black wind passing by their eyes, and a sword snatched the hands of the remaining villains before they could touch the boy.
He grabbed the blond boy by the back of the collar and threw him towards "Geralt" without looking back. Then Lann extended the rune sword forward again, lightly picked up the hand of another prisoner, and kicked this believer of the Eternal Fire to a safe area.
There were no more friendly troops in sight, but the enemies gathered together at this time. This was Lan's favorite way to meet the enemy at this stage.
He stretched out his left hand and his magic power dropped sharply.
[Igni Seal: Magical Explosion! ]
A heat wave no less than that generated by gangsters blowing up an iron gate gushed out, instantly enveloping the villains.
The scalding air rushed back and made the shivering people behind cover their eyes. Only the Eternal Fire believer who had just been thrown back had his eyes wide open, lying on the ground and even forgetting to get up.
He murmured to himself: "The flames cleanse the filth, just like burning a wound that has become pus-filled and festering. The souls that have committed evil crimes must also be purified by the flames..."
The enemy in front of him was defeated by Lann within two rounds, and the cavalry who came with Lann scattered to look for other gangsters who had escaped in the courtyard.
The children hiding in the corner were not afraid at all when they saw this scene. The blood no longer aroused their fear. At this moment, they looked at the dazzling knight with shining eyes.
Lan chuckled as he watched Geralt hand the child to the brown-haired woman beside him and then look at him warily.
"I'm Lann Lannister Rhaanlon. Geralt told me that he once encountered a very interesting shapeshifter in Novigrad. It is said that the other party has turned into his appearance. If I remember correctly, your name should be - Toot?"
Of course, this story was not told by Geralt, but was read by Lann in his previous life.
The shapeshifter named "Dudu" in front of him is the one that Geralt has encountered. He was once hunted by Geralt, and later he changed into Geralt's appearance to fight the original witcher, but he was intimidated by Geralt's momentum before the fight even started. And Chapet finally revealed his shapeshifter identity in front of Geralt in order to save him.
When Toot heard Geralt's name, his body visibly relaxed a little, but the alertness on his face remained.
"You know Geralt?"
Lan nodded and tilted his head to gesture to the door: "There's still a commotion outside. I'm going to help calm it down. Do you want to come and lend a hand?"
Geralt's thoughts came back to him, and Toot was obviously moved, but then he turned around to look at the people in the courtyard and shook his head: "I want to protect everyone in the theater here."
Lan nodded and said nothing more. He turned around and called on the knights who had completed the search to ride away. They came quickly and left even faster.
The Foxon Troupe woke up from their dream and immediately went to check on their injured companions. Irena immediately organized everyone who still had strength to find everything they could to block the theater door again.
Toot's body twisted and soon changed from the image of Geralt into a bearded doctor-like man who helped the blond boy check his wound.
"Dudu?" The boy asked uncertainly, looking at the strange-looking shapeshifter. Not long ago, the bearded doctor in front of him was a playmate of the same height as him, but just now he turned into a white-haired swordsman who killed many gangsters.
Dudu remained silent and nodded.
The boy's eyes lit up: "Dudu, you are awesome!"
Dudu paused abruptly, and his silent expression finally softened.
"Yeah?"
"Hmm!" The boy's eyes twinkled, "Can I learn this?"
Dudu shook his head: "You can't learn it, and you don't want to learn it."
"Okay." The boy pouted. He suddenly thought of something and shouted excitedly, "That... that knight just now, did he say that he is the lion? He is, right?"
"Yes, that's what he said. He is the Lion, Lann Lannister Rhaanron."
"He grabbed my collar and threw me out." Although he had lost a lot of blood, the boy's face was flushed with excitement, "I think I'm pretty good too!"
Dudu looked at the boy and chuckled.
"Yes, you are also very good."
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