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The fighting is endless. The day is a blur of bloody claws and burning houses, and the shouts of the Crowned Serpent, who seems impossibly close but whom you can never find. Mercenaries swarm through the village to kill and loot.

But the River People are defiant; they fight with all their savagery and skill to expel these invaders, and you do whatever you can to help and to stay alive. Then, suddenly, the False Icon's army pulls back; perhaps the villagers fought them to a standstill, or perhaps they still have unfinished work against Stralchus. They vanish downriver toward the Ziggurat, leaving most of their dead.

Exhausted, you catch your breath and see who is still alive. You soon reunite with Alexius and Therko, who were on the frontlines for most of the fight. Vecla and Control spent their time coordinating the villagers and helping the wounded. It takes a long time to find Chief Kothis, because whoever killed him took his golden pectoral. You find him surrounded by dead ophidians.

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