Sparks flew about, as well as the reverberations that shook the ground. The attack was more than enough to waste a small village completely, talk less of a ten foot long tank. Surely, it was more than enough. At least that was what they had thought.

But much to their dismay, and to their perpetual shock, after the dust and the smoke cleared, they all watched with horror as Xzavier's tank continued to make it way out of the compound- completely unfazed and untouched! They were all mortified! It was almost as if their attacks had bounced right off. None of the impact had been absorbed by the tank at all! Like an indestructible giant sea turtle, it kept gliding down the estate, totally unperturbed as if nothing mattered at all.

While the outside enemies wallowed in their despair, from the comfort of the inside of his tank, Xzavier assessed the damaged sustained to his tank from the blast. As he turned on the screen that read the tank's vitals, Xzavier was pleased to see that there hadn't been any substantial damaged. There had been little to nothing in the way of sustainable damage. In fact, if it wasn't for the occasional vibrations and tremors that they both felt inside the tank, none of them would have suspected that they were under attack in the first place.

Babara on the other hand was scared to death. She hadn't fully quite come to terms with the fact that she was in the belly of a metallic monster. In fact, she did not know or understand anything about what was going on around her! The only thing she knew for sure was that they were going to die! She could sense the savage lust and brute intentions of their attackers. But as she saw that somehow they were fine, even after the first wave of attack, she began to relax. Maybe there was hope after all.

Meanwhile, Xzavier had been struggling to lean in to his humanity all this while. But with every passing minute, it was getting increasingly harder and harder to cling on to his human side. Finally, Xzavier managed to turn the switch off completely. He had done his best to be considerate of their plight. His hand rested on the mechanism that controlled the machine gun that was configured inside the tank. Taking a deep breath, Xzavier began his reign of terror.

Battle in this era was conducted mostly with magic, and occasionally, traditional weapons got involved at some point. So, it was completely unfathomable that Xzavier could be able to launch an attack from inside his tank. They weren't prepared for the rain of metal bullets that rained down on them. The powerful kickback of the thirty millimeters machine gun came after the mages' coordinated attack. They weren't expecting a counter, so when the long, thick bullets came flying, they couldn't do anything about it.

The first line of unfortunate idiots to take the fall were those who were unlucky enough to be in front of Xzavier's tank. The steady rapid fire of the machine gun tore through the ranks, sending body parts flying all around, drowning the muffled cries of the mages in the oppressive roar of the machine gun's fury. The others, still not sure of what was happening, they all scrambled to get away from the stream of bullets flying around. But it was all for naught.Determined to get them, Xzavier switched his line of fire from a direct parallel line, and began to rotate all around a three hundred and sixty degree angle, making sure to get at least a few more stubborn enemies from all angles. In doing so, he immobilized them completely, rendering any attempt to counter completely futile. All the while, Xzavier was still advancing. But nobody really cared about that. They were all too bothered with staying alive and keeping their heads up.

The casualties were abysmal. So many mages were either dead, or scouring for the lives to evade the death trap. It was all so morbid, and dour. Especially since they had all thought that this was going to be a grab and arrest mission. How could one man wreak such damage?

Xzavier causally drove his tank on, leaving a trail of dead bodies in his wake. It was clear as day that nobody could stop him now. He knew it, and more importantly, his enemies knew it. So, totally unhindered, he freely eased his way out of the estate. Victory was his at this first stage.

It was impossible to not hear the terrible sounds of the battle coming from the governor's estate. Everyone in a twenty mile radius all around could hear it clearly. So that not even Cadence and Earlene couldn't ignore it. They had both been jolted out of their sleep at the sound of the first blast. It had indeed been a rude awakening. But nonetheless, they got the memo. Earlene looked out of her window and saw the lightning sparks in the distance. Her whole body began to tremble along with the reverberations on the earth.

"What in heaven's name is this?" she wondered.

Earlene was the first to rush out. The first person she rushed to find was her brother. With her heart in her mouth, she bundled herself together and sprinted in the direction of her other sibling's room. It wasn't that far away. Cadence himself was already awake. It wasn't completely unexpected given the disturbing sounds that were coming from all sides. Nonetheless, it was happening either way.

"Cadence!! What's going on?! Are we under attack?" she called out to her brother.

Cadence replied her calmly; "I have no idea. I thought you knew. What do we do?"

​ Both siblings had never been in this kind of situation before. They had been raised in a bubble, shielded by their privilege from the harshness of life's reality. So, their survival skills were less than average. Earlene was the oldest, and the one who always took charge. But at this point, she wasn't completely clear on what to do. But one thing was glaring though, they had to find out what was happening. And the only way to do that was to find the master of the household- Quaid Princy.

"I think we need to find father. He should have alerted us or at least sent for us by now. Come on quick, let's go!"

They both jogged towards, the direction of their father's home office since his own room was too far away from theirs. But much to their dismay, he wasn't on seat. Their heads began to turn with worry now. The noise outside now resembled the roaring of a terrifying beast that was splurging out its wrath. Standing alone in the corridor that was barely illuminated by the flaming torch, Earlene and Cadence looked at each other, trying their best to stay strong for what was to come- whatever the hell that was.

"Earlene we need to go outside..."

The older sibling flashed her eyes. "What?! Why would we want to go outside?!" she grabbed Cadence by the shoulders and shook him; "Now is not the time to prove your manliness little brother, snap out of it and let's find a place to hide."

Cadence shook his head, still calm, he explained things further; "Look around you Earlene, there is no one in sight! Not even father. We need to first find out what's happening okay? The sooner the better. Let's go!"

Earlene was hesitant, but she couldn't argue with his logic. Her little brother was changing, this wasn't the wimpy Cadence she knew. He had grown to be more assertive and more domineering in the past few weeks. So, even though she was absolutely against it, she reluctantly followed him towards the main exit. Just as they were about to burst open the door and ball out through the main exit, a firm, sturdy figure blocked their path. It was a guard.

"My apologies lord and lady, but we have been given strict orders not to let you out."

Earlene breathed a sigh of relief. This was good news. It meant her father was still in control. But Cadence wasn't totally convinced. He needed to be sure. So he stepped forward authoritatively and questioned the guard;

"And whose orders were those exactly?"

Meanwhile, Xzavier had made steady progress outside. At that very moment, with no one stopping him, he surged forward in his powerful tank and brokered his way through the solid oak gates of the governor's mansion. The impressive gates which once stood tall and proud were completely decimated by the sheer brute force of the leopard tank. With that out of the way, Xzavier swaggered out onto the street, leaving the carnage and destruction he had caused in his wake.

Despite the yawning chasm that described the gap difference between Xzavier's strength and that of his enemies, Dale stubbornly refused to stay down. It was obvious that Xzavier was leagues ahead of him and his army. And yet, somehow, Dale still found the will to try to engage Xzavier. It was uncanny, and it was totally gutsy. But it was Dale.

The Silver Knight totally ignored the heavy losses he had sustained, and began to plot his next course of action. He assessed the basis of Xzavier's stance and saw that Xzavier stayed progressive. In spite of the fact that his contraption was monstrous and abnormally heavy, he stayed on the move. Dale's military mind recognized this fact, and resolved to counter it. Experience from his previous attack had shown that an all-out attack on Xzavier was next to useless. In fact, it was virtually pointless at this point to even consider it.