17 Broken Arrow (1/2)
Under the light of the Fayne's golden moon, sparks flew as Luca's broadsword clashed with the lead black-hooded figure's longsword.
”What in brimstone is happening?!” Varda exclaimed. ”What are we doing, Dean?”
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”A few stone golems would be handy right about now!” I yelled back at her as I sent my falchion toward a second black-hooded figure who had darted for Luca.
This one was shorter and thinner than the first and was also way quicker. It would have cut into Luca's exposed left leg if I hadn't intervened.
My shadowblade met the dagger that parried my slash, but with my momentum and my sneak attack giving me an advantage, the dagger and its wielder were blown back.
I caught a glimpse of an ebony brow and pale eyes, almost white but with a shade of red, as I pushed away my opponent. This backward movement made its cloak flutter briefly and gave away the feminine form hidden underneath it.
Our exchange lasted seconds, which was the exact amount of time Varda needed to form a response for my advice about summoning golems, ”But I need a large number of rocks to make golems?!”
”We're literally outside a canyon, Varda!” I parried her verbally while also parrying my opponent's dagger strike as it came slicing through the air where my stomach was just a second ago. ”There are big rocks everywhere!”
”Oh, yes, right!” Varda yelled back.
While Varda and I had this quick conversation, from the corner of my eye I kept tabs on Luca and the lead hooded figure as they traded sword blows. Luca had more power in his swings but his opponent was lighter on his feet and swifter with his shadowblade. Just like my own opponent who used the moment my little brother's fight distracted me to attack me a third time.
However, there wasn't a need for me to react defensively as a Firebolt fired from behind me came hurtling at my attacker, forcing her to duck for cover.
At the same time as Aura's timely attack, the last two members of the thieves' party ran past me without even a second glance.
One of them, a short child-like fairy, carried a heavy sack over its shoulders, and as it went by, the smell of fresh-baked pastry wafted out of the sack. However, the second one, a tall broad-shouldered fairy, had something in his arms that made my gut clench tightly.
Two child-like fairies, both with ebony skins and silver hair, clung to the one carrying them. They looked like they were only four years old and yet both of them had steel manacles wrapped around their wrists attached to recently broken chains. And while one child had its face buried in the folds of the dark cloak of the fairy carrying it, the other child gazed back at me as they passed with an anxious expression on his face.
A quick glance at the two retreating figures with their luggage and I decided not to give chase. Somehow, my gut told me it was the right thing to do. Unfortunately, I was the only one who thought so because it was at this time when the city guard finally showed up and made things worse.
The crowd of onlookers parted to give way to the guards who moved to surround all combatants. They wrongfully included me and Luca in this encirclement.
My eyes darted past the circle of guards and eventually found Aura looking back at me with mild concern while she was half-hidden by Edo's bulky form. Varda was nowhere in sight—and I couldn't help but wonder where the dwarf went to find her rocks.
There were twelve members of the city guard in total. All of them were dwarves who wore the same orange tabards—embroidered with the broken sword insignia of Broken Sellsword's Canyon—over steel chain mail shirts. They all carried similar weapons too. Round shields and polearms that were just the right length for fairies under five feet tall.
The eight male dwarves were your typical tan-skinned, heavy bearded fellows with narrow eyes half-hidden under very bushy eyebrows. Their hair, also in different shades of black and brown and red, were all similarly long and braided.
The five females in the guard were all typical dwarven beauties with fair skins, chiseled features, and hair all tied in a tight bun behind them.
Both I and the female thief I was fighting glanced around worriedly at the sharp shadowblade tips that the guards pointed at us in this tightening circle. Yet it seemed neither Luca nor his opponent knew of the danger as they continued with their swordplay despite the new arrivals.
The guard leader, an especially stout dwarf with a braided beard long enough to go past his stomach yelled for everyone to throw away their weapons and surrender.
”Hold on... we're trying to help you!” I reasoned and received a hostile glare from the leader for my trouble.
”Put down your weapons or I'll—”
His threat was cut off mid-speech by the black arrow with red fletchings that had just pierced his throat. Blood seeped out of his wound in rivulets.
Then the screaming started and panic overcame the crowd. Human and fairy onlookers dispersed in a mad dash for the Canyon's gates. Chaos ensued.
A second arrow came zooming past me and struck one of the female guards who was closest to the dagger-wielding thief. The guard next to her screamed bloody murder and was also struck down by a red fletching arrow.