9AM November 8th, 1587 - Dijon, Kingdom of France But in the end, none of it matters. I will not live to see the end of the day, of that I am certain, and yet I continue on. My previous failures, all of them, no matter how important or unimportant they seemed at the time, they are all staring me in the face. And, staring back, I realize that I only have one legitimate regret. I did not enjoy myself as much as I should have.

Sauer stood inside the gate.

The Beans among the Empire tents moved to block the soldiers from exiting Dijon, at least thirty between Bösch’s soldiers and the stables two hundred meters outside the Empire camp.

Captain Bösch shouted as he smashed the barrel of his musket into the head of an approaching Bean, sending small clumps of beans flying as the creature fell to the ground. Bösch adjusted his grip on his weapon and shouted again, motioning towards the stables, before charging at the nearest Bean.

Sauer stood as soldiers ran past him, directly into the horde of Beans.

Schmidt, Rob, and Jakob ran past, muskets aimed at two Beans approaching Bösch as he fought a third. They bickered as they shot, Schmidt’s bullet hitting one of the Beans in the shoulder, the force of the impact knocking it over, while Rob’s shot barely missed the torso of another. Jakob’s shot hit Rob’s opponent in the head, knocking it to the ground.

The Bean that Bösch had shot moments before stood up, lashing out at Jakob despite the small crater in the center of its head. He avoided the attack, stepping to the side as Rob bludgeoned it back to the ground.

The Bean that Schmidt had shot lashed out at Bösch, who was busy fighting his own opponent. Schmidt stabbed the barrel of his musket into the Bean, trying to take its attention away from Bösch.

The Bean that Jakob had shot grabbed Bösch’s leg, causing him to cry out and stumble to the ground as the other Bean he was fighting reared back to finish him off.

Soldiers and civilians ran past Bösch through the Empire tents, attempting to avoid the Beans and reach the presumed safety of the stables. Sauer watched as a civilian ran past a tent, a Bean hiding behind it tackling him, pinning him to the ground.

The sound of musket fire ceased now, many of the soldiers having already used their single shot and not having the time to reload their weapons. Instead, they followed Bösch’s lead, using their muskets as clubs to fight their way past the Beans.

Schmidt sprinted over to the Bean preparing to attack Bösch, hitting it in the chest with the butt of his musket. Jakob ran over to help free Bösch’s leg from the grip of the other Bean, while Rob continued to beat his own opponent on the ground. Jakob scraped at the Bean, trying desperately to weaken its grip on Bösch, but the beans covering it were able to flow like water and recover itself again just as quickly. Slowly, the beans began to move up Bösch’s leg and Jakob’s arms.

Jakob, eyes wide, yelled something at Rob, who stopped beating his opponent on the ground and moved to help. Schmidt, heeding Jakob’s cry for help too, switched his attention from the Bean he was fighting to the Bean holding Bösch.

As Schmidt hit the Bean in the head, Rob grabbed Bösch under his arms, slowly pulling his leg free of the Bean’s grip with a wet sucking sound. Jakob was able to remove his arms, the Bean diverting its attention to the musket that was being repeatedly bashed into the back of its head.

The group, now free, backed away from the three Beans walking towards them, while another dragged itself along the ground.

Bean reinforcements walked around Dijon’s walls from the north and south. Behind Sauer, the Beans that had entered Dijon were moving quickly down the main street, the massive Bean creature following behind, causing a rhythmic shaking with each step. Sauer estimated that they had less than five minutes before they were surrounded on all sides.

Still, he stood motionless in the gate.

To Sauer’s left, Reist was led out of the city by the young French man he had frequently seen her with before. The man held his musket confidently, sweeping it in front of him as he searched for the closest opponent. Once he found his target, he shot it in the center of its featureless face. Sauer saw the bullet fly out of the other side of its head, the Bean falling to the ground, completely motionless. Reist, who was not holding a weapon, complimented the man. Together, they ran through the sea of tents towards the stables.

A handful of soldiers and civilians littered the ground, either motionless or grasping at their throats, while others were fighting Beans and losing. A small group of soldiers gathered around Bösch halfway into the camp, desperately fighting the gathering swarm of Beans around them.

To Sauer’s left, Gladisch ran out of the gate, wielding a splintered piece of wood she had pried from the gate like a club. She went from fight to fight as she ran through the camp, assisting as many people as she could.

Sauer stood, frozen in fear, the ground shaking violently every few seconds. Thoughts flew through his head as he watched the chaos unfold in front of him. The Beans were horrifyingly durable. He should have grabbed a weapon. He should run while the Beans fought the other soldiers. Why had the shaking stopped? He should help them fight the Beans, or at least help the people he cared about. Did he care about anyone else’s safety more than his own?

What was that whistling?

Beside him on his left, there were numerous forceful impacts on Dijon’s wall, dotting the stone with innumerable fresh craters. Sauer turned, watching as the massive Bean creature lowered its arm from in front of it. It roared, causing a deep discomfort in Sauer’s chest, then stood motionless for a moment.

The massive Bean creature moved its arm back, as if to throw something. For another moment, it stood motionless. Then, it adjusted its arm slightly.

Its arm flew out in front of it, a cloud of the creature’s white beans three meters across launched into the sky, sailing directly at Sauer.

He watched as the beans whistled through the air and fell, first into the main street, shredding a corpse, kicking up clouds of dust, cracking the stones with the force of the impact, then into the damaged wall to his left, which began to crumble from the new impacts. He felt the wind rush past him from the force of the creature’s attack, which had barely missed him.

The only thing between the massive Bean creature and the soldiers outside had just crumbled to the ground.

The massive Bean creature lowered its arm back down in front of it, roaring again.

It stopped, then wound its arm back.

Sauer finally ran.